diorsluv

[diorsluv]

casual , part 8

“ so now when we kiss ”

series m. list previous chapter

( socialmedia!au )

yourusername

liked by _quinnhughes, luca.fantilli, and 123,748 others

yourusername who’s gonna be the chandler to my monica (i need someone to marry me when i’m still single at 40) 🤗

view all comments

vivianliu don’t worry bae i’ll hook you up with the hottest 40 year old man when we get there

→ yourusername you’re too sweet 😞😞

→ lhughes_06 no you won’t

→ vivianliu yes i will 😒 lhughes_06

rutgermcgroarty i can’t be chandler but i can be the ullmark to your swayman

→ yourusername STOP YOU KNOW ME SO WELL

→ jswayman1 there’s only room for one pair 🙄

→ rutgermcgroarty …have you just been lurking??? jswayman1

→ yourusername oh my god sway it’s you i love you so much you’re like one of my favorite goalies ‼️

→ yourusername DID YOU JSUT FOLLOW ME IH MY FUCKUGB GODDDDD jswayman1

→ jswayman1 yes i did 🫡

→ jackhughes WHAT this isn’t fair???

username25 THE jeremy swayman just followed you babe how do you feel 🎤

→ yourusername AMAZING

username37 FRIENDS AHHH

trevorzegras i can be the chandler to your monica

→ yourusername yeah.. i’m good 😬

→ trevorzegras HEY THATS MEAN

→ yourusername i’m just kidding z (not really)

→ yourusername i’m sure there’s a ton of girls out there that want you!! it’s just not me 🫶🫶

→ _alexturcotte the public rejection is insane

→ trevorzegras 💔

→ yourusername i still love u tho!

→ trevorzegras ❤️‍🩹

edwards.73 me

→ yourusername we’ll see

→ edwards.73 whats that supposed to mean 🤨

→ yourusername one night in my bed isnt gonna make me forget about everything

→ edwards.73 IM SORRY FOR IGNORING U

→ yourusername prove it

luca.fantilli i’ll be the rachel to your ross!

→ yourusername you wanna be the woman in an on-and-off relationship??? 😭😭

→ luca.fantilli yeah i wanna see what it’s like to be you for once 🤗

→ yourusername hold up

→ lhughes_06 LMAO

→ dylanduke25 THAT WAS SO UNCALLED FOR

→ luca.fantilli oops

→ yourusername 😟😟

username34 the way he looks at her 🥲

username88 I LOVE THEM

markestapa hypothetically what would you do if someone asked you out and asked you to be the monica to their chandler

→ yourusername i would marry them on the spot

→ markestapa moving a little fast there aren’t we?

→ dylanduke25 AHEM edwards.73 AHEM

lhughes_06 ustjay osay ouyay owknay ehay eallyray oesday ikelay ouyay (just so you know he really likes you)

→ yourusername we haven’t used pig latin since like middle school 😭😭

→ _quinnhughes your nerd phases

→ lhughes_06 utshay upyay (shut up)

→ jackhughes IGPAY ATINLAY (PIG LATIN)

→ luca.fantilli oh my god i remember speaking pig latin

→ adamfantilli igpay atinlay asway oatedgay (pig latin was goated)

→ vivianliu is this just a sibling thing 😭

→ dylanduke25 no tyler never learned it for me 😐😐

→ tyler___duke5 no i just never used it with you dylanduke25

→ trevorzegras ancay onfirmcay ityay asway ayay iblingsay ingthay (can confirm it was a sibling thing)

→ griffinzegras please don’t bring it back i was struggling enough back then

→ edwards.73 iyay opehay ouyay owknay iyay understandyay igpay atinlay ootay (i hope you know i understand pig latin too)

username84 who’s gonna translate all that pig latin 🥰🥰

username97 oh my god this is gonna send me back into my friends phase

→ username6 RIGHT

_alexturcotte remember the friends marathons we would have every summer

→ yourusername barely 🙄

→ _alexturcotte WHY ARE U ROLLING UR EYES

→ yourusername YOU WOULD ALWAYS “FORGET” TO TELL ME YOU WERE WATCHING IT

→ trevorzegras he was watching it with me that’s why 😉

→ yourusername ieday trevorzegras (die)

→ trevorzegras you’re no fun rosie

adamfantilli i love gale weathers

→ yourusername completely different franchise but yes she’s toooooo iconic 😈😈

→ vivianliu sidney’s hotter

→ adamfantilli that’s a hot fucking take vivianliu

→ luca.fantilli sidney prescott or sidney crosby??

→ vivianliu both

→ markestapa you’re all forgetting about billy

→ yourusername BILLY

→ lhughes_06 billy 😒

username18 i just finished friends!!

username75 I WILL

mackie.samo I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE

→ yourusername i love maddy more

→ mackie.samo YOU MET HER ONCE

→ yourusername i stand by my statement

username71 istg this is directed at ethan

username8 STOP I MISS THEM

username31 i need someone to look at me like that

colecaufield ‘90s shows were my childhood 🙏🙏

→ yourusername ur literally an ‘01 baby???

→ colecaufield BARELY

username66 THEM >>>>

yourusername

liked by edwards.73, trevorzegras, and 111,629 others

yourusername i was fuckin superstars when i was nineteen 🥴

view all comments

jackhughes woah there

→ yourusername it’s just a song ! 😰

→ jackhughes i’m sure that’s all it is 🤨🤨

_quinnhughes YOU’RE STILL A CHILD

→ yourusername IM ALMOST 20??

→ _quinnhughes UR STILL 19

→ yourusername then my caption’s pretty fitting

→ _quinnhughes 😐

username27 IS IT BECAUSE OF WHAT I THINK IT IS

→ yourusername do tell

→ username27 ur 19, u and ethan, ethan’s like an underground superstar

→ yourusername 🙊

edwards.73 the shit we did you won’t believe me

→ dylanduke25 NOW IM AT THE TURN UP

→ mackie.samo LOOKING LONELYYY

→ trevorzegras AND THEY WONDER WHY IM QUIET AT THEM HOUSE PARTIESSSS

→ jackhughes CUZ EVERYBODY SEE ME

→ colecaufield ROLL SOME BLUNTS

→ adamfantilli AND HIT HER ONCE

→ rutgermcgroarty AND NOW SHE NEED ME

→ yourusername brent faiyaz 🙇‍♀️

→ edwards.73 did u put everyone on this song 😕 yourusername

→ yourusername yeah..

→ edwards.73 thought it was just me

→ dylanduke25 dont act all jealous 🙄🙄

username55 you’re. so. pretty.

dylanduke25 creds creds creds creds creds

→ yourusername creds!

→ edwards.73 why’d you take the pics

→ dylanduke25 bc we were hanging out?? 😭

→ edwards.73 oh

username89 omg babe where’s your top from

→ yourusername im gonna be honest i have no idea vivi got it for me as a gift 😔🙏

→ vivianliu i custom made it 🤭

mackie.samo this is so #cottagecore and #aesthetic

→ yourusername who the hell is teaching you this

→ mackie.samo my sisters 😕😕

→ lhughes_06 stop using hashtags good fucking lord

→ markestapa that intervention wasn’t for nothing mack 😒

trevorzegras brent faiyaz our lord and savior

→ yourusername 🛐

rutgermcgroarty HEY why didn’t you post our photos 😞

→ yourusername tis for another time my dear boy

→ rutgermcgroarty shakespeare lookin ass

→ yourusername 🖕

→ adamfantilli guys remember when we were nice to each other

→ yourusername no

→ rutgermcgroarty no

username99 CLOUDED

luca.fantilli is he gonna ask you out or what

→ yourusername luca 😭😭

→ luca.fantilli what?? i’m jus being curious 😔

username35 HELLO????? the fit ate down

vivianliu fuck her on the floor like i don’t give a fuck bout it 🎶🎶🎶🎶

→ yourusername your judgement get clouded when you clouted

→ vivianliu your judgement is clouded as hell

→ yourusername HOW???

→ vivianliu you know 😐😐

→ edwards.73 stop hating lil bro

→ vivianliu i hope you drown

username76 that second pic got me kicking my feet n shit

username21 skincare routine when???

username3 how are you not a model

adamfantilli let me tie your shoes bc i don’t want you falling for anyone else

→ yourusername no

→ adamfantilli did your license get suspended for driving all those guys crazy?

→ yourusername adam babe we talked about this

→ adamfantilli do you play soccer? bc you look like a keeper

_alexturcotte i got you new sneakers 🥰

→ yourusername REALLY??

→ _alexturcotte i figured you’d need them after running through my mind all day

→ yourusername oh god please don’t make this into a habit

→ colecaufield stop harassing her with pickup lines turcs

username69 we all know ethan’s going feral over this one

→ username14 fr i can sense it from here

username5 the hughes genes are godly asf

notes ) this is my way of coping through the pain of being a stars fan anyways should ethan n rosie finally get together 🫢

tags: @dancerbailey3 @hughesfein @loveforaugust @alwaysclassyeagle @love4ldr @inhoodmood @bunting58 @crazycat-ladys-blog @smoooore @bunbunbl0gs @lilasianmeat

#ethan edwards #ethan edwards x y/n #ethan edwards x reader #ethan edwards fanfic #ethan edwards fic #quinn hughes #jack hughes #cole caufield #alex turcotte #trevor zegras #luke hughes #dylan duke #mark estapa #mackie samoskevich #rutger mcgroarty #adam fantilli #luca fantilli

[diorsluv]

feather , the drama queen

“ i say she’s too dramatic ”

series m. list

( socialmedia!au )

yourusername

liked by lhughes_06, missseraphina and 310,937 others

yourusername photo dump time 🗣️🗣️

guess who ran into connor bedard at the family function 😱 he was looking at me weird n shit cuz me and mark were cosplaying as rapunzel and flynn rider

also i love taking screenshots of my bf and his goofy brothers when they look stupid!

tagged: lhughes_06, markestapa, _quinnhughes, trevorzegras, jamie.drysdale, masonmctavish23, _connorbedard

view all comments

jamie.drysdale where did you find that pic of us.

→ yourusername use ur common sense

→ trevorzegras this feels like a violation

→ yourusername it is! ☺️

_connorbedard i was looking at you weird because you are weird.

→ yourusername awww cmon ur no fun 😔 we all know im ur favorite relative

→ _connorbedard we’re not related.

→ jamie.drysdale oh my god not even your cousin loves you yourusername

→ yourusername SHUT UP JAMIE

→ _connorbedard WE’RE. NOT. COUSINS?????

→ trevorzegras breaking news!!! bedsy and jamie are related 😱😱

→ _connorbedard my finger is hovering over the block button

username44 funny that she posts this RIGHT NOW..

→ username10 they all have her blocked they don’t know anything

trevorzegras WHEN THERES SOMETHING STRANGE

→ yourusername IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

→ _quinnhughes aw that sounds just like the two of you

→ luca.fantilli WHO YOU GONNA CALL

→ rutgermcgroarty GHOSTBUSTERS!

→ adamfantilli 👻👻👻

→ yourusername quinn YOU’RE the strange looking thing in the neighborhood 🤬 _quinnhughes

→ jackhughes flashbacks to when that little kid got scared when he opened the door

→ _quinnhughes oh my god I WAS WEARING A COSTUME

username79 did anyone else notice who liked the post…

→ username3 good lord she’s back

luca.fantilli it seems war is NOT over 😔

→ yourusername ????

→ dylanduke25 luca i thought you had her blocked smh

→ luca.fantilli how’d you know who i was talking about unless you didn’t have her blocked either???

→ yourusername …

_quinnhughes everyone’s gonna start calling me depressed now 😐

→ yourusername sweetie they’ve been calling you depressed keep up

→ _quinnhughes 😨

→ jackhughes 😱

→ lhughes_06 🤯

dylanduke25 let’s give me the credit for that costume idea!

→ yourusername you told me to dress up as mother gothel.

→ dylanduke25 out of love 🤗

→ markestapa YOU TOLD ME TO DRESS LIKE THE FUCKING HORSE.

→ lhughes_06 HEY MAXIMUS IS A GREAT CHARACTER

edwards.73 why is mark at the family function 🤨

→ yourusername his mama wanted to come 😈

→ markestapa that’s a lie she forced me to come because i was the only one willing to dress up as flynn rider for her

→ edwards.73 …why are you dressing up in costumes at the family function?????

→ yourusername THE KIDS ALWAYS DO A LITTLE COSTUME PLAY CONTEST THING

→ jamie.drysdale she made me dress up as the lorax when we were in middle school

→ yourusername stop complaining i was literally mr o’hare

→ jamie.drysdale AND THEN YOU MADE ME LORD FARQUAD THE YEAR AFTER THAT

→ yourusername 🙄🙄

→ trevorzegras pics or it didn’t happen.

lhughes_06 you really snuck that cute ass pic of you thinking we wouldn’t notice

→ yourusername ew i hate you

→ lhughes_06 you love me

→ yourusername 🙄

→ lhughes_06 say it ☹️

→ yourusername 🥱

→ jackhughes PLEASE JUST SAY IT ALREADY I CANT STAND HIS WHINING

→ yourusername no can do jacky boy 😓

→ lhughes_06 you little shit

→ yourusername luv u too 😒😒

username10 connor looks so done

username98 quinn has never had a good pic of himself posted by any of his friends 💀

mackie.samo I COULDVE BEEN FLYNN RIDER WHY DIDNT U ASK ME

→ yourusername i asked mark first 😓

→ markestapa HAH take that

colecaufield i took that second photo 😒

→ yourusername our lovely backup photographer 🫶🫶

→ lhughes_06 your quality is kinda ass

→ colecaufield BRO i took it on your phone???

missseraphina

liked by yourusername and 202 others

missseraphina i know you miss me, bc why else would you have texted me last night? 🥰

view all comments

username24 oh babe.. that’s not…..

username8 girly this is a bit obsessive don’t you think? 😭

username61 he’s taken. TAKEN.

username82 yesss girl get your man back!!

→ username40 …as in the one that’s in a relationship rn??

username77 sweetie just find someone else already

username95 I THOUGHT THEY ALL BLOCKED HER but lil drizz just liked the post what

→ yourusername it gave me a good laugh what can i say

username43 they’re making an absolute mockery out of her

username20 LMFAOOO

username18 don’t tell me she’s still going on with ts 😭😭

username55 but let’s think about it.. she wouldn’t have posted this unless he actually texted her

username39 it’s bc he still wants u 😝😝

→ username14 i KNOW you’re not talking about luke hughes 💀

yourusername

liked by adamfantilli, jamie.drysdale, dylanduke25, and 347,252 others

yourusername oh girl you’re obsessed 🥱

view all comments

username90 HELL YEAH we’re back on the drama train

jamie.drysdale i thought i told you to block her 😑

→ yourusername I DID but then all my friends were telling me abt the shit she was posting and i couldn’t resist 😞😞

mackie.samo you’re so petty

→ yourusername aw cmon mack you know you love my pettiness 🤗🤗

→ mackie.samo uh huh i definitely do

→ markestapa bro ur literally pettier than she is

→ mackie.samo give me ONE good example

→ markestapa you blocked me for a week because i said your hair looks like a rat lives in it 😐

→ mackie.samo thanks for the reminder im blocking you again

username10 babe ur feeding into the drama 😭

→ yourusername i know 😈

username34 WHEN SHE PLAYS MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTSSSSS

username28 our multi-talented queen!!

adamfantilli will we ever be done with the couple-y shit 😒

→ yourusername when she’s done obsessing over my man 🫶

→ lhughes_06 what’s that heart for yourusername

→ edwards.73 you’re so possesive luke get over yourself 🙄🙄

→ adamfantilli FR

→ markestapa FR

→ luca.fantilli FR

→ jackhughes FR

→ rutgermcgroarty FR

→ _alexturcotte FR

→ _quinnhughes FR

→ trevorzegras FR

→ dylanduke25 FR

→ jamie.drysdale FR

→ colecaufield FR

→ mackie.samo FR

→ yourusername not again 😭

username88 is she ever gonna go away

luca.fantilli but when you think about it.. luke probably DID text her to provoke that post

→ yourusername LMFAO he would neverrrrr right? lhughes_06

→ lhughes_06 um

→ lhughes_06 i don’t wanna lie to you

→ yourusername oh

→ luca.fantilli oh shit 🤯

→ jamie.drysdale what.

→ markestapa DUDE I THOUGHT YOU BLOCKED HER lhughes_06

→ edwards.73 there’s no fucking way

→ _quinnhughes …

username20 goddamn what happened under luca’s comment 😭😭

username24 holy shit there’s no way luke actually texted her again

username80 oh my god???

notes ) cliffhanger 🙊🙊 yes we’re back but not really (?) this one’s been sitting in the drafts for a while so.. i hope it’s fairly adequate LMAOO

tags: @aliaology @hockeyboysarehot @absolutelyhugh3s @jackquinnswife @freds-slut @love4ldr @blueeyedbesson @43hughes @v1olentdelights @dancerbailey3 @random-human02 @ho3forfakeguys @loveforaugust @cstads-blog @h0e4fictionalme-n @bunting58

#luke hughes #luke hughes x y/n #luke hughes x reader #luke hughes fanfic #luke hughes fic #quinn hughes #jack hughes #cole caufield #alex turcotte #trevor zegras #jamie drysdale #rutger mcgroarty #adam fantilli #luca fantilli #ethan edwards #mark estapa #dylan duke #mackie samoskevich

[diorsluv]

game theory EVERYONE THAT WANTED THE STARS TO WIN FUCKING JINXED US because now we’re down 0-2 in the series!!!!!!!!

#dior yaps #you’re welcome america #we’re losing for the country #st*ne needs to go back to ltir #at least robo put that bitch in his place #it’s like the superbowl #people wanted the niners to win cuz they didn’t want the chiefs to win and guess who won #watch us get swept by the piss jerseys

[diorsluv]

i, an avid dallas stars fan, will be taking a mental health break after watching the first 2 periods of our first game against the vegas injured reserves. i don’t know when i’ll be back but just know that america has LOST.

(this is a joke i’ll post the next chapter in a few days)

#dior yaps #dallas stars #stars #stars hockey #dallas stars hockey #it’s so fucking over #i swear the ltirs are the bane of my existence

[diorsluv]

“i didnt mean to hurt you” PLEASE i audibly screamed 😭

the amount of times men have said that to me is insane

WANT ME DEAD

summary: loving and being loved by jack hughes was supposed to feel like a breath of fresh air— but the air was quickly stripped from your lungs when you realized it was never real

pairings: jack hughes x fem!reader

warnings: heavy angst, one sided love, bets, death

uhm heavily UNEDITED LOLL she kinda sucks but

you knew jack was the one for you the moment he came up to you after one of his games just to apologize for someone in the crowd accidentally pouring their beer on you— someone who he had no idea existed.

you knew jack was the one for you when he would make an effort to call you every night, always waiting for you to answer before saying, “hey, pretty girl.”

you knew jack was the one for you when he came to your house the night after your brother got into a car crash. he held you tightly— whispered sweet nothings into your ear as his hold never loosened.

you knew jack was the one for you the moment ‘i love you’ slipped through his lips; like little secrets only he wanted you to know.

but, your entire relationship wasn’t private— no it was entirely public. not public in you posting each other, but public in him telling every little detail to his best friends: trevor and cole.

you realized jack was a shitty man the day you overheard him on the phone. his voice; the one you grew to love, was speaking to trevor.

you realized jack was a cruel man the day you heard him admit out loud to his mother how this was all fake. you realized his mother was an admiring woman the moment she started to yell at him. you realized jack would never be a good person the moment he lied to you.

“was any of it real to you?” you whispered as you looked at his back. you watched him tense up before turning to you.

“what—what do you mean?” he was acting oblivious— sinking into it.

“how much of our relationship was fake to you, jack?” you spoke, your eyes held pain in them as you teared up.

“where is this coming from, baby?” he asked.

you let out a scoff mixed with a choked sob. “why are you still performing in front of me? im not stupid jack, ive heard you! you called me stupid for believing this. you just told your mom it was just because you wanted money.”

“baby..” jack spoke lowly. his eyes held guilt, anger.

“were you sent by someone? someone who wanted me dead? because you are fucking killing me, jack. ive been back and forth with myself, trying to convince my head that you were lying; or even just joking. ive tried for defending you against my head for so fucking long, jack.”

you watched as ellen stood there; clearly torn apart by the entire thing. of course she loves her son, but he was ruining you.

“you knew i loved you— you knew that and you still did this? you couldn’t have a fucking heart and just reject me?” you were desperate— desperate for his love, even after this.

“i didnt want to hurt you..” he trailed off.

you let out another scoff. “good fucking riddance”

you had tears running down your cheeks. you turned around, trying to not let him see you cry. you felt his hand touch your shoulder— which you quickly shrugged it away.

“dont you dare— you have no right.. no right to touch me right now.” you were a mess— a full on mess. “you— i let you see all of me, all of it.” you brokenly whispered.

“i let you in— you came to my brothers funeral for fucks sake, jack! i cried on your shoulder— you told me, you said so many things.” you cried out.

jack watched you break down, his brows furrowed as guilt washed over him.

“i took you to my moms grave.” you whimpered out, your lip quivering as you shakily spoke.

ellen came over, her arm wrapping around your shoulders. “come on sweetie, lets get you outside.” she whispered.

you sobbed into your hands as she began to lead you outside. “mom—“ jack tried to speak but was immediately cut off by the look she gave him.

that night, you declared ellen hughes as your savior. that night, you declared jack hughes as the shittiest man to exist. the smallest man who ever lived.

i need to make a new taglist bc i forgot everyone and it was so messy last time 😭😭 lmk if u want tags from now on babes!!

#dior’s recs #I CRIED #tears have been shed #this hit too close to home

[diorsluv]

casual , part 7

“ you said ‘we’re not together’ ”

series m. list previous chapter next chapter

( socialmedia!au )

yourusername

liked by vivianliu, dylanduke25, and 100,299 others

yourusername i’m on that hot girl shit

view all comments

username91 the mirror pics 🤭🤭

username40 gimme sum of the hot girl shit babe 🙏

lhughes_06 yes queen be confident!! don’t let my douchebag of a best friend bring down your happiness

→ yourusername who are you and what have you done to my brother

→ mackie.samo limp wrist culture

→ markestapa 🍊🍓🍎🫐�����🥝🍏🍋

→ dylanduke25 fruit bowl alert

→ rutgermcgroarty 😟

→ lhughes_06 STOP THIS I BEG OF YOU

_quinnhughes i have a few friends who want to get to know you a bit better

→ yourusername wait a second..

→ _quinnhughes yes i know i never let you talk to guys 😑 BUT THIS IS AN EXCEPTION.

→ yourusername is it what i think it is 😱

→ jackhughes WAIT WHAT WE DIDNT AGREE TO THIS

→ lhughes_06 THIS WAS NOT UNANIMOUSLY DECIDED

→ _quinnhughes THIS IS A ONE TIME THING ONLY yourusername

rutgermcgroarty yay

→ yourusername ☺️

→ rutgermcgroarty 😁

→ yourusername 🥰

→ rutgermcgroarty 🤗

→ lhughes_06 what the hell is this

→ luca.fantilli goddammit they’re communicating in emojis again

_alexturcotte AYEEEE NICE

trevorzegras SHES BACK??

→ yourusername IM BACK

→ trevorzegras are you happy

→ yourusername i’m happy!

→ jackhughes she’s not happy she called me last night bawling her eyes out

→ yourusername THAT WAS STRICTLY SIBLING BUSINESS jackhughes

username48 who’s gonna tell her she looks absolutely GORGEOUS

username93 drop the workout routine babe

→ username22 fr i’m tryna get a waist like that

luca.fantilli i think someone might feel a bit regretful

→ yourusername i wonder who 🤨

→ luca.fantilli i think you know who

→ yourusername i won’t know unless he tells me himself

→ luca.fantilli IM TRYING TO HELP YOU

vivianliu oh my god

vivianliu mother

vivianliu you’re so hot

liked by yourusername

vivianliu who needs your little boy toy when you have MEEEE

→ yourusername ‼️‼️

→ lhughes_06 i’d rather you date her instead of him

→ jackhughes me too

markestapa he has so much pride i apologize

→ yourusername 🤷‍♀️

→ yourusername you know how i am with my toxic men

→ _quinnhughes yeah you’re obsessed yourusername

→ trevorzegras LMAOOO

→ mackie.samo goddamn 😭

→ vivianliu stop don’t do her like that

→ _alexturcotte violation.

→ dylanduke25 💀💀

colecaufield hello i see those are the headphones i generously gifted you out of the kindness of my heart

→ yourusername i dont like where ur going with this.

→ colecaufield I DIDNT EVEN SAY ANYTHING

→ yourusername U SOUND LIKE UR GONNA SAY SOMETHING

→ jackhughes he wants you to go watch him play when they play the wings on thursday

→ colecaufield JACK.

→ yourusername AWWW OF COURSE I WILL (can you get me good tickets 🤨)

→ colecaufield i already got you behind the bench don’t worry

username14 i’m afraid you ABSOLUTELY ATE 💕

username55 mom and dad are fighting again

→ username71 mom and dad??? they didnt even hard launch babe 😭😭

edwards.73 nice

this comment has been deleted

edwards.73

liked by adamfantilli, markestapa, and 93,447 others

edwards.73 spent time with the #1 bro tn

tagged: markestapa

view all comments

dylanduke25 i always knew you had favoritism

→ edwards.73 it’s true mark’s my favorite

→ dylanduke25 YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DENY IT

→ edwards.73 my mom said never lie

→ markestapa i love you too babe 🥰🥰 edwards.73

→ edwards.73 😘

username36 this is so frat boy

adamfantilli this is completely unfair

→ edwards.73 you berated me last night on ft

→ adamfantilli BRO SHE’S MY BEST FRIEND BY ASSOCIATION

username16 i’m waiting for you and rosie to make up

username5 ethan’s cheating with mark 😱

mackie.samo let’s address the allegations

→ edwards.73 hell no

→ dylanduke25 what allegations?? 😟

lhughes_06 why can’t you just stop beating around the bush for once

jackhughes i hope you know she cries herself to sleep every night

→ yourusername stop exaggerating it was one time 😒

username17 listen to the hughes ethan please 🙏

username3 i’m so confused what’s going on

vivianliu you should’ve spent tonight with her

→ edwards.73 well i didn’t so 🤷‍♂️

→ vivianliu oh my god you drive me insane just make up and fuck already

→ markestapa what’s with the change of heart vivian 🤨🤨

→ vivianliu i give up

colecaufield 👍

→ edwards.73 🙏

username45 ayeee that’s what we like to see

username90 whyd you post a mirror pic too

→ username22 can he not post a mirror selfie?? 😭

_alexturcotte just makeup and makeout

→ trevorzegras whaaat 🤯

→ edwards.73 thought you were so against me what happened

→ _alexturcotte we’re so tired of you two

luca.fantilli am i #2 at least 🥹🥹🥹

→ edwards.73 yes bro ur #2 🙄

→ adamfantilli #2 literally means shit

→ rutgermcgroarty awww luca you’re shit 🥰

→ luca.fantilli hahaha ur so funny

yourusername stop ignoring me please

username37 ethan and mark best duo ⁉️⁉️

username74 let’s talk about the fact that that’s a whole ass mural in a house???

→ username59 frat house go crazy

_quinnhughes stop ignoring her ethan

→ edwards.73 i’m not

trevorzegras should’ve invited me fr

→ edwards.73 buddy you’re on the other side of the country

→ trevorzegras PLEASEEEE 🥺🥺🥺🥺

→ edwards.73 ew god no

username16 this is so old chase atlantic coded

→ username44 LIKE THE NOSTALGIA EP??

→ username60 YEAAA

rutgermcgroarty PLEASE she’s sobbing uncontrollably and i know it’s killing you too

→ edwards.73 mmmm

→ rutgermcgroarty i see you on life360 outside her apartment dont even try to act all mysterious and shit

→ edwards.73 STOP STALKING ME??

→ rutgermcgroarty if i don’t see you still at her apartment when i wake up in the morning i’ll make sure you never wake up again

→ adamfantilli calm down rut 😭

→ colecaufield i see you’re a bit protective aren’t you rutgermcgroarty

→ mackie.samo why are we threatening each other

→ lhughes_06 okay why are his words effective but mine aren’t 😔😔

→ markestapa what the hell is going on

→ dylanduke25 FIGHT??

→ jackhughes more like a murder dylanduke25

→ vivianliu i stand by rut ‼️

username20 please just have makeup sex already i want the old posts back

→ username2 yeah i think they’re doing that 💀

next chapter notes ) soooo yes they’re a little toxic but i love my toxic men 🥴

tags: @dancerbailey3 @hughesfein @loveforaugust @alwaysclassyeagle @love4ldr @inhoodmood @bunting58 @crazycat-ladys-blog @smoooore @bunbunbl0gs @lilasianmeat

#ethan edwards #ethan edwards fanfic #ethan edwards fic #ethan edwards x reader #ethan edwards x y/n #quinn hughes #jack hughes #trevor zegras #alex turcotte #cole caufield #dylan duke #luke hughes #mackie samoskevich #mark estapa #adam fantilli #rutger mcgroarty #luca fantilli

[diorsluv]

make your chapters as short as you need tooo!!

thank you anon 😭😭 i’ll try to make it interesting i promise!!

#dior yaps #i’m so burnt out #please i just need summer to be here

[diorsluv]

casual , part 6

“ someone you couldn’t lose ”

series m. list previous chapter next chapter

( socialmedia!au )

yourusername

liked by rutgermcgroarty, mackie.samo, and 75,188 others

yourusername guess what hoe (affectionate) ruined my day this time 🥰

tagged: rutgermcgroarty

view all comments

rutgermcgroarty i’m your only hoe right 🥺🥺

→ yourusername aw you’re funny sweetie you’re like my fifth hoe

→ rutgermcgroarty but you told me i was the only one for you 😔😔😔😔😔

→ yourusername i lied bbg i got other bitches 🙏

→ vivianliu IT’S ME I’M OTHER BITCHES!!!!

lhughes_06 you weren’t hanging out with him this much when i was still there 🤨🤨

→ yourusername you unnecessarily took up 50% of the time i could have been spending with my lovely best friend

→ lhughes_06 im ur brother.

→ yourusername hes my best friend.

→ rutgermcgroarty YOU ADMITTED IT IM THE LOVELIEST BEST FRIEND yourusername

→ yourusername lovely and loveliest are two very different things rut

username28 ethan’s definitely malding i can hear it already

edwards.73 i asked if you wanted to come over but you didn’t respond

→ yourusername you texted me at midnight

→ edwards.73 yeah

→ mackie.samo eddy you absolute dumbass

→ edwards.73 WHAT DID I DO??

→ rutgermcgroarty do you ever text her before 11 pm 😭😭

→ edwards.73 not really why?

→ markestapa you just answered your own question buddy

_quinnhughes tell me if your little boyfriend isn’t treating you right

→ yourusername not my bf!!!!! remember he doesn’t want labels quinny

→ _quinnhughes that in itself is already bad enough

→ lhughes_06 the only reason i haven’t flown back to beat him up yet is because of the little respect i still have for you yourusername

→ yourusername well aren’t you just an angel 😐

username17 whats stopping rosie x rut from happening???

→ username11 everything

→ username2 everything = ethan

vivianliu i hate how you guys are so sibling coded

→ yourusername awww are you jealous 🥺🥺🥺

→ rutgermcgroarty stop it vivi you’re breaking my heart

→vivianliu hahaha very funny we all know your little crush on her never went away 😐😐

→ rutgermcgroarty DONT EXPOSE ME TO THE PUBLIC LIKE THAT

→ yourusername RUT WE TALKED ABOUT THIS

markestapa i have an inkling you’re doing this on purpose 🤨

→ yourusername you’re tinkling????

→ mackie.samo the hell is an inkling 💀

→ dylanduke25 mark we need to address the tinkle problem

→ markestapa THATS NOT THE POINT OF THIS COMMENT

→ edwards.73 fr that’s what i’m saying

→ _alexturcotte maybe she is doing it on purpose

trevorzegras are you breaking my boy’s heart??

→ yourusername quite the opposite

→ trevorzegras uh huh

→ jackhughes IS THAT A COD REFERENCE yourusername

→ yourusername no jack i’m not quoting ghost 😒

username93 best friend supremacy

username1 this is your and rut’s world, we’re just living in it 🙏

dylanduke25 rosie did you know that jealousy is a real thing

→ yourusername did jealousy accidentally break the shower head again

→ dylanduke25 yes. and jealousy almost burned the building down

→ luca.fantilli jealousy also punched a hole through the front door

→ markestapa and somehow knocked out the entire heating system in the dorms??

→ yourusername oh god

username75 what happened to ethan 😰

colecaufield BREAK IT OFF

→ yourusername my friendship with rut???

→ colecaufield you know what i’m talking about 🙄

→ yourusername idk do i?? 🤔🤔

adamfantilli you stole my boyfriend.

→ yourusername oh did i? oops! 🤭

→ adamfantilli i will drive back there just to fight you

→ yourusername jokes on you cuz rut n i are already heading to springfield for a mini road trip

→ rutgermcgroarty shhhh you weren’t supposed to tell anyone 🙁

username60 oh look it’s my sanity slowly leaving me

username49 am i the only one still supporting rosie x ethan 😟😟

username18 PLEASE i’ve been begging for more content for forever i’m so happy

yourusername

liked by _quinnhughes, luca.fantilli, and 83,826 others

yourusername what are we?

view all comments

vivianliu damn babe when’d you get all philosphical and shit with your little quotes??

→ yourusername when i cried over him for 3 hours straight ‼️

→ rutgermcgroarty i’m sorry you WHAT

→ jackhughes this is unacceptable

_quinnhughes you’re really testing my nerves rosie

→ yourusername how so 🤨

→ _quinnhughes you gotta stop letting him treat you like that kid

→ yourusername i’ll be fine quinn don’t worry about me

username13 SO PRETTYYY

username52 the quotes hit different though

adamfantilli this is literally a direct call out????

→ yourusername it is?? i never woulda guessed 😱

→ adamfantilli yknow maybe you should just end it here

→ yourusername it’s okay i know how to fix things i’m like bob the builder

username67 i’m sensing a cry for help

→ yourusername 🙏

username3 that third quote really hit a lil too close to home

username11 oh babe…

markestapa r u ok

→ yourusername don’t sound like you’re being held at gunpoint 😭

→ markestapa Are you okay?

→ yourusername yes crayola marker i’m just dandy

→ markestapa i’m sorry

→ yourusername for what??

→ markestapa him

mackie.samo he’s just being a pussy rosie don’t worry about it

→ yourusername i’m a chronic worrier 😰😰

→ mackie.samo he’s trying, he promises

→ yourusername wish he could tell me that himself

jackhughes it physically pains me to see you like this

→ yourusername i’m ok!

→ jackhughes you never say “ok” 😭

username25 man this even hurts me

username49 this is why i hate men

→ vivianliu REAL SHIT

rutgermcgroarty this is really affecting you isn’t it..

→ yourusername take a wild gander

→ rutgermcgroarty i’ll take you to the lakes after morning practice tomorrow

→ yourusername you don’t have to

→ rutgermcgroarty best friend duties call 🫡

username74 shitttt this the story of my life

edwards.73 fr

next chapter notes ) so unfortunately i’ve decided that imma make the chapters shorter so it’s easier for me to post and i won’t get burnt out as quickly.. please forgive me!!

tags: @dancerbailey3 @hughesfein @loveforaugust @alwaysclassyeagle @love4ldr @inhoodmood @bunting58 @crazycat-ladys-blog @smoooore @bunbunbl0gs @lilasianmeat

#ethan edwards #ethan edwards x y/n #ethan edwards fic #ethan edwards fanfic #ethan edwards x reader #quinn hughes #jack hughes #trevor zegras #cole caufield #alex turcotte #luca fantilli #rutger mcgroarty #adam fantilli #mark estapa #mackie samoskevich #dylan duke #luke hughes

[diorsluv]

TOOOOOO FUCKING GOOD 🤭

i was so immersed it’s insane, i literally stayed up way too late the day before an early exam but it was all worth it

day by day, year after year

summary: time flies when you're having fun, and summers on the lake fly by all too fast.

request: yes. CHILDHOOD FRIENDS TO LOVERS. SUMMER FIC.

warnings: honestly there's a big chunk o smut in this like I took it as friends to LOVERS ok it's not all smut tho promise ; If you're not into smut you could honestly scroll past it and still enjoy the fic!! nico hischier is portrayed as a little shit in this (baseless) ; lil bit of insecure!quinn. ; sort of au bc hockey is mentioned but not as biblically accurate as I like to be ; big summer friend group vibes ; barely edited i am sorry in advance :(

smut below the cut. minors dni also just a note for everyone: pls don’t allow fictional media to create false expectations for u.

word count: 20k

Summer in Michigan was hot, which was why your mother insisted on buying a house on the lake. Everything one could possibly need was in arms reach; the chain grocery store a 5 minute drive away; a liquor and corner store even closer. With your parents away on an extended trip, the lake house was all yours and your girlfriends'.

You're all laying on towels across the dock, sunbathing, and when you feel like it, taking a dip in the cool water. The neighbours hadn't made it back to the lake just yet, which explained why the water was so still. No boats or jet ski’s disturbing the surface.

“D’you know when those boys will be here?” your friend, Julie, asked as she turned onto her back. 

“Who, the Hughes?” You clarified, though you knew damn well who she meant. You propped yourself up on your elbows, looking towards the dock closest to yours. It was close enough to swim to, but certainly not in one breath. “No, why?” 

“Oh, come on. You have eyes.” Mila wiggles her eyebrows. Your girlfriends shared wide smiles. You blushed, a specific Hughes coming to mind.

“Who are you kidding? You are so hot for Quinn Hughes,” Chelsea rolls her eyes and grins.

“Good, stay in your lane!” Julie says before she jumps over the side of the dock. She, along with the rest of your friends, could run a Jack Hughes fan club. They absolutely fawned over him. Whatever it was they thought you were doing over the oldest Hughes boy, they were doing tenfold to poor Jack. It had always been that way, though.

Maybe it was because Quinn was so quiet. 

Maybe it was because Jack was so easy to like. 

Maybe it was because Luke was just a little too young.

You don't argue, because there are parts of you these girls know better than you know yourself. You hold them close to your heart, so close they could see right into it. You close your eyes when you turn over onto your back, enjoying the warmth of the sun on your skin.

.

.

.

You're all but ten years old the year your parents buy the lake house. It's a pretty pale blue with white trimming, with no need for renovations, which your dad likes, and it has a jacuzzi, which your mom likes. You stand outside on the big patio, trying to figure out what you like about the house. It looks onto the lake below, where you see a couple of boats and jet skis cutting through the otherwise calm water. The sun is high and it makes everything sparkle.

"Hey!" You hear someone call and you look around. "Come around!" You follow the sound, around to where the balcony wraps around the side of the house. "Over here!" Through the trees you see a boy waving both arms above his head. He barely clears the handrail, so he climbs up over it. 

You're terrified for him. It's a long way down, maybe four stories if you consider the land sloping towards the water. There's another boy there, though, one that you can see clearly over the railing. He's maybe your height, and you hope he's got a tight grip on the smaller one. "You should tell your parents you want to live here." 

"Yeah? Why?" You call back, straining to rest your chin on the bannister, a front row seat if he were to fall. 

"'Cause we're here!" The little boy flashes a big smile, and you can see that he's missing a couple teeth. The boy next to him waves and gives you a matching smile. You want to tell them that your parents already bought the place, you'll be here every summer, when another boy comes into view through the small clearing in the trees.

"What are you guys yelling about out here? Jack! Get him down from there!" He rushes forward and yanks the small boy back inside the confines of the patio. The first boy is grumbling, and the second one is laughing, dragging him away. The third one looks through the tree branches, sees you, and yells, "Sorry about that!" 

You don't meet them again until your dad calls you and your mom out onto the dock one random afternoon. The new boat he placed on order had finally arrived, and he had invited the neighbours to help roll it into the lake. 

"You're not supposed to be pushing the boat," the same small boy says to you when you follow your dad to where the boat is still attached to his truck. Your mom chats with theirs over on the dock.

"Why not?" you question, crossing your arms.

"You're a girl. You can sit on the boat, but you shouldn't be doing the boat work," he tells you in a bossy tone you don't like. Up close, the gap between his missing teeth is a lot bigger. You look at your dad, who is busy chatting with theirs. 

"She's got arms, she can push if she wants to." The other one says, giving his younger brother a nudge. The third boy is standing with your dads, as if he was part of their conversation.

"Honey, have you met the Hughes?" Your dad waves the three of you over. "This is Mr. Hughes and his sons, Quinn, Jack, and Luke." Your dad introduces you before you can tell him that, yes, you've met.

"These boys help me with our boat every year. Real good at taking care of her, 'specially Quinn here," Mr. Hughes puts a hand on the third boy's shoulder. You wonder if he's squinting like that because it's so sunny. No one else is. "You can stay up by the truck and control the wench, we'll get the work done down here. Little lady, do you want to sit in the boat when we get it into the water?" Mr. Hughes asks you, and your dad tilts his head, letting you make your own decision. Pettiness fully bloomed at the age of ten, you glare daggers at a smug looking Luke. 

"I want to help push." 

Luke scoffs. Jack laughs. Quinn doesn't say anything at all. 

Your dad rewards their work by taking everyone out on the lake in the new boat. You sit beside your mom, who sits beside their mom. Luke is nestled in Mrs. Hughes' side. Jack and Quinn are up at the front of the boat with your dads. They let the two older boys take turns 'driving the boat.' The sky is every shade used to describe love, the sun kissing the water in the distance. The wind whipping through the boat is warm. You didn't know it, blowing raspberries across the boat at little Luke Hughes, but he would turn out to be right. 

You would come back to the lake, year after year, because they were here.

.

You’re running around your front yard, ‘helping’ your mom plant flowers along the perimeter, when you see your neighbours come out from their front door. They drag big bags and load their car. “Why do you have skates in the summer?” You ask, and stare accusingly at Quinn, who holds a pair in his hands. 

“Gonna go play hockey!” Luke yells, jumping out from behind him.

“Hockey? You can’t play hockey,” you say, little voice dripping with pettiness, “My dad watches hockey. You’re way too short.” Luke hated that.

“Don’t listen to her champ- she was watching Sid the Kid. She doesn’t know the first thing about hockey.” Mr. Hughes notices him and comes over, happily greeting each other.

“Why don’t you two come along?” Mr. Hughes asks your dad, “You can help run the drills and the scrimmage, I can explain the game a bit to her. Come hang out.” Your dad looks to your mom, who gives him two thumbs up. 

You sit in a cold rink with your dad’s zip up hoodie over your shoulders. You didn’t have any of the right clothes to be inside an ice rink in July. It was freezing. You didn’t know places like this existed in the summer. Your dad puts on a pair of skates and is on the ice, with everyone else. One thing was clear when you saw the neighbours’ kids skating around with the other kids; they were good skaters. Everyone was skating but they were skating fast, stopping fast, and skating backwards really well. Your dad acquires a whistle, and is preparing everyone for puck drop. 

Mr. Hughes tells you what that is, and why everyone is standing where they are. There’s a reason for everything. Certain players need to know what this is for themselves as well as someone else, their check. A good player knows all the reasons for anyone on the ice- has to know why their guy wants to be on that side of him, needs to know why he can’t let that happen. “Watch Quinn,” He points out his son near the net. Quinn skates back, boxes his check out in front of his own net, forcing the other guy to the outside corner.

A good player pays attention to the zones, can tell how fast a puck is moving as it’s coming. The lines are important: your side, the “neutral” zone, and their side. You want to be in their side as much as possible, but there are rules to going about doing so. “Look at what Jack’s going to do,” he points him out for you, he’s the one coming off the bench.  The moment he does, he taps his stick to the ice. As soon as he receives the pass he steps over the big blue line, and Lukey flies by him headed right to the other goalie. Jack gives it to Luke, who puts it in the net. 

“It’s really more of a winter sport,” Mr. Hughes admits to you, “but they enjoy it way too much to hang their skates in the summer.” You spend the rest of the afternoon going back and forth with Mr. Hughes on the bleachers.

.

.

.

You're eleven when you first hear the phrase, 'raised by women.' You hear it at the country club, sitting under the shade of the golf cart with your mom and others, playing caddies for a day.  

"What little gentlemen those Hughes boys are turning out to be," Mrs. Hischier says, sipping from a straw in a glass. You look over, and sure enough, out of all the boys they're the only ones with their shirts still tucked, though Luke is pushing it.

"That's what happens when you're raised by women."

"You mean raised by the woman. El, what's your secret?" Your mom bumps shoulders with her. They're close- neighbours, boat seat buddies, and occasionally each other's summer babysitters. Mrs. Hughes laughs, doesn't take credit, tells them her husband does a lot, too. 

You look out to the dads and boys, each gripping metal clubs. You've sat through enough courses to know the rotation. It'd be Mr. Zegras, then Trevor; Mr. Hischier, Luca, then Nico; Mr. Tkachuk, Matthew, and then Brady; Mr. Hughes, then Quinn, then Jack, and then Luke. Your dad's turn is between Brady Tkachuk and Mr. Hughes. You want to swing too, want to stand in the sun and hit a little ball with all your might. A loud crack makes you jump out of your thoughts, and your eyes settle on Quinn's follow through.

You're eleven when you make a friend out of Quinn Hughes. In middle school you're taught a lot outside of classrooms. It's a boy vs girl world. Boys are brash and brazen and aggressive. Why would anyone ever want a boy? But come summer, it was three boys you'd be stuck with. 

You ask Quinn because you can't ask Luke- he's not even that good. Jack is out of the question. He's your age and boys your age are gross. Quinn is older, taller, wiser, at least, you think he is. You walk down their deck, where he's standing with his parents by their boat. 

"Hello," you say politely, with all the niceties your mother taught you, "Can I play golf with you?" His parents look at each other, pretending to talk about the boat as they listen in on you.

"Huh? Why?" Quinn faces you fully with somewhat of a frown on his face. You've known him for a summer, seen him enough times to know he just looks like that. He doesn't tell you no, doesn't tell you girls can't. He's raised by a woman, after all.

"I wanna be good," you say, "and I think you're good." 

He grins at the compliment- the biggest you've seen him smile. Says, "Okay," with a tug of his mom's dress. 

"I think that's a wonderful idea, I'll put you two down for the junior driving range." Her eyes sparkle with something other than the reflection of the sun on the water.

.

.

.

You're thirteen the year you realize Jack is pretty. It's the first year your parents let you invite friends to the lake house. You're only allowed to bring two so you choose Julie and Megan. Julie's a no-brainer, she's your best friend. You invite Megan because she's the most popular girl in school. You think it's a good idea until you're stuck with her for three months. She's always on her phone, complaining about anything she can to anyone who will listen. Still, you try and enjoy your summer. Maybe she'll get her parents to pick her up a week early.

You and Julie are sitting in floaties, chatting and keeping close to the dock, where Megan sunbathes on a towel on her phone. A call of your name has you turning your head towards the familiar sound. Every year, they sound a little different, little changes in the pitch of their voices. You’d recognize them all the same.

You see Jack waving at you from their dock, but you know it wasn't his voice you heard. Your eyes narrow and scan up their deck. Where's Luke? The words are there on your tongue, but before you even open your mouth Julie shrieks as she's yanked underwater. Megan scrambles to her feet in panic, away from the edge of the water, clutching her phone to her chest. Jack jumps in like a lifeguard on duty, swimming towards the group of you.

When Luke and Julie surface they are both red in the face. Julie is gasping for air and Jack helps her get to the ladder up your dock. "Luke, you're the biggest idiot I have ever met." You tell him, watching him grab onto Julie's abandoned floatie. 

"Odds were 50-50," he snaps at you, clearly embarrassed. He follows you, swimming back to shore. He hoists both floaties onto the deck and follows you out of the water. 

"Are you okay, Jules?" You kneel down next to her, and rub her back as she tries to control her heaving. Jack stands, casting some shade on her, and Megan is quick to stand by his side. She adds to the shadow cast on Julie, but her eyes are on Jack.

"I'm okay!" she assures you with a cheerful voice, despite her coughing, "Just surprised me- is all." Your leg shoots out to kick Luke, who was standing uselessly. 

"Ow- I'm sorry," he bends down next to you to apologize sincerely, "I meant to drown that," he refers to you, tone absolutely dripping, and you can't stop yourself from laughing. You wrap one arm around his shoulders, give him a side hug. 

"It's nice to see you, too, Lukey." He drops the act, hugs you back. You both help Julie to her feet, and you're about to greet Jack properly when you notice someone else already has. Luke clears his throat, and Jack looks up. He moves forward to hug you, too.

"Hey, Sunshine," he calls you by a name you are only known by here, on this lake. "Who're your friends?"

You remember during your third summer in Michigan, the three brothers were going through their WWE phase. Every morning, they'd yell at you from their dock or their patio at the top of their lungs: 'Hey Sunshine! Can you hear the cannons? Kapow!' and flex and pose ridiculously. They never dared to do it again the following summers, but the nickname stuck and would always remind you. 

"This is Julie and Megan," you introduce everyone, "And this is Jack and Luke. They're from next door. They're usually a blast when Luke's not attempting murder," you stick a sharp elbow into his side. "Where's Quinn?" 

"He's working on the boat with dad. Should be ready by this afternoon," Luke reports excitedly.

"And why aren't you two aren't helping?" You cross your arms. 

"We saw you and wanted to say hi," Jack shrugs innocently, "Do you guys want to come boating when it's ready? 

"Yes," Megan answered quickly for the three of you. It was probably the most interest in doing anything she had expressed all summer. You were just happy she was getting involved instead of moping about bad cell service. 

You're thirteen the year you realize Jack is pretty.  It's not Megan and her googly eyes and lingering touches on his arm. No, that was all normal for Megan. Julie says his name a little too much, stares at him a little too long. You're staring at him too, across the boat. It's something between a squint and a glare, scrutinizing. You don't see it. You see brown curls that stick to his forehead with sweat and lake water. Your friends are much more interested in talking to Jack than you, which you don't like but don't fight either, and move up the boat.

"Can I try?" You ask Quinn, who was holding the wheel, and he steps aside, one hand on the wheel until you get both of yours on. Your dads are sitting behind you, talking through every sport under the sun. The four of you have all had your chance at the wheel before; the day you're all eligible, they'll take you to get your license. They'd love nothing more than to sit in the back with their feet up one day, or go golfing instead of chaperoning a boat day.

"Keep it straight," Quinn says, pulling the wheel ever so slightly. He lets go of the wheel again and you don't say anything. Among the three brothers, Quinn had the least to say. You preferred silence with Quinn over radio silence from your friends. You breathe deeply, enjoying the soft hum of the motor over the chatter in the background. "I think Megan likes Jack." 

You give him a sideways look, "Uh huh." 

"Does that bother you?" 

Your eyebrows furrow, and you turn your head to look at him fully. "When did you become so chatty?" 

He reaches out to straighten the boat again. He shrugs, ever so neutral. Out of the three, he's the hardest to get to, the hardest to bother. "You seem bothered by it," he says, "Otherwise, you'd be back there." 

"I just want to get some practice in," You weren't all that bothered, you tell yourself, yet you refuse to even look over your shoulder. If anything, he's what's annoying you now, "I'm gonna get my license so I can drive around without them, whenever I want." 

"I'm gonna get mine first," he tells you, and it's probably true. After a moment he adds something that is definitely true, "I think Megan likes Jack more than you." 

You laugh. Hearing him say it makes you feel better, somehow. You feel seen; he validates your frustration. "I think so, too."

"Don't worry, it's always like that with Jack," Quinn says, an attempt to comfort you. He gives you another shrug accompanied by a small smile, and for the first time he looks bothered. It's his eyes that give him away, blue not like a clear day, but blue like the centre of a hurricane. You smile back. The boat hums beneath you. 

.

.

.

You're fourteen when Quinn gets in your head. It's not even summer, though you're counting down the days. It'll be exactly three months and four days until summer vacation, three months and two days before you make it back to the lake. You sit in art class with Julie, across from two boys on the basketball team, when you feel your phone vibrate in your pocket. 

Quinn: Heyy 

You show Julie under the table and she raises an eyebrow, "What does he want?" You shrug, staring at your text chat. You can't even swipe because it's so short. The only previous messages are from last summer.

Quinn: Hey sunshine it's quinn 

hey!! ty I'll save ur number :)

You're reading it over when he sends another.

Quinn: Sorry, that was Luke

haha, ok. how's jack and lukey?

He doesn't reply, and you have never focused on a text chat so much in your life. You check your phone throughout the day, throughout the week, but he never lights up your phone. By the weekend you think to let it go. It's not like he has anything to text you about. And he's older, they're always saying it only gets harder. He's probably busy doing his homework, like you. Your phone vibrates in your pocket, and it's a text from a boy but not the one you want.

.

Megan isn’t invited back the next summer. Quinn’s got his boat license, as he said he would, and it’s the first time you guys are out on the boat unsupervised. He drives down the water, picking up friends along the lake. You and Julie are comfortable in the back, and Jack and Luke are up front with Quinn, who always takes his role too seriously. 

“Quinnnn, you’re the man,” Nico daps him up into a hug when he boards the boat. He looks down the boat, greets you and Julie. Nico is the same age as Quinn, and he drives too- only he doesn’t actually have his license. He’s too lazy to get it, and he'll get away with it for as long as he can. “Jack, where’s your friend? You know, the one.” He makes a face, which makes the whole boat snicker. He imitates Megan clinging to Jack’s arm, and quickly gets shoved off. “God, what’s her name?” He snaps his fingers, as if it would help him. He gives up, tapping Quinn, “Yo, pull over on your left here.” 

Nico was probably Jack’s best friend, outside of his brothers. He’s a class clown and a loose cannon. He’s annoying, and crass, and loud, and terribly easy to like. He's everything Quinn isn't. He gives Luke pointers on picking up girls like they're trade secrets. Like Jack, he's easy on the eyes. You think that's why he gets away with all the stuff he does, charms his way out of anything. They're a devastating duo on the lake for sure. 

He brings Luke up the random dock and disappears up the stairs. They return quickly, faster than you can suggest leaving them. They have two pretty girls in tow, who you recognize from the country club. Luke 's ears are red but he's grinning. You can see Quinn roll his eyes from where you sit at the back of the boat. Nico introduces Chelsea and Mila, and everyone except Quinn finds themselves at the back of the boat. You stare at his back until Jack's voice reels you back in. The conversation is something to do with how certain finishes make docks less slippery. It's nothing interesting, but you suspect Jack could read a telephone book and someone would listen. Even Chelsea and Mila pretend to for a bit.

Chelsea was slender with sharp features, like a supermodel with the height to match. She was easily the tallest person on the boat, clearing even Quinn, who had grown a lot since the previous summer. Mila had a rounder, friendlier face, and was only up to Chelsea's shoulders. You learned that Chelsea liked writing poetry and Mila's goal in life was to become a cat lady. It was hard to believe they weren't sisters, but best friends, like you and Julie.

Nico quickly grows bored of the lack of attention, and lucky for him, Quinn picks up Trevor, and then Matthew and Brady, who board with a bag of ice and a pack of fruit sodas for the cooler.

Matthew gives Quinn a break from driving, and he joins the back of the boat for the first time since setting sail. He leans on the edge of the boat, and you get everyone to squish in, so that he can sit on the cushions, too. "Thanks," he mutters, and sinks down next to you. 

You know why he's not sitting on the side with the guys- he doesn't like Nico. He doesn't say much, seated next to you, but he would say even less if he were sitting over there. For Nico was everything that Quinn wasn't; all chatty and charming. 

Your thigh rests over his ever so slightly, and you're made hyper aware of how hot his body runs. He leans back and you sit forward. He's still like stone, and you almost forget he's there, with your back half turned to him while you're in conversation with the girls. He doesn't sit for long, and heads back to the wheel, talking quietly with the older Tkachuk brother. His absence makes you feel cold. The surface of the boat is hot to the touch with the sun beating down on it. 

The same group, the same night, gathered in the basement of the Hughes house. It was decidedly the biggest and their parents were the most accommodating. Your parents didn't mind if you and Julie were out at night, as long as you were close by. It certainly helped that they knew the Hughes personally.

Matthew opts out of the sleepover, claiming that 'he's too old for this,' and 'he's got better things to do', like calling his girlfriend. That left the ten of you, a mix of sitting and laying down in the Hughes' big comfy basement. The couch downstairs was even bigger than the one upstairs in the living room, you could all fit side by side. But why would you when there were bean bags and floor cushions that were just as comfortable. 

You'd outplayed the board games and grew tired of the video games, and it had gotten to that hour of the night, where you would all sneak out to the lake and lay on the grass under the stars. You couldn't imagine doing any of this with anyone else- it was still very boys vs girls back home, and middle school boys were decidedly gross. 

Nico reminds you that he's gross, too. "Hey Lukey, who would you rather see topless? Julie or Mila?" 

The question cuts through the peaceful silence, and you hear someone sigh. The energy shifts, though no one moves, breaths held. 

"Uhh, probably Julie." Luke answers awkwardly, but recovers fast, "Trevor: would you rather kiss five 10/10s, or french two 5/10's?"

You close your eyes as Trevor dissects the question and explains his thought process over something that would never actually happen. "... 5 is pretty good overall. I'm frenching the 5's. Higher possibility of getting to the next base.” You hear hands clap, likely Trevor and Nico high-fiving; for what, you have no idea. It's not like it would ever happen.

"Hey, Sunshine, whose bed would you rather sleep in? Jack or Luke?" Trevor asks you, and you hear coughing from Jack on your right. Luke is eagerly waiting for your answer.

“You know there are three of them, right?” You say to Trevor. 

Nico laughs like a dog barks. “Quinn wouldn’t let you in his bed even if you begged him,” He makes you frown in the dark. Trevor snickers, and the group laughs lazily, because Nico is just so funny.

“Mmm, I think I have to go with Lukey." You think before speaking, "Julie, who would you rather go swimming with, Jack or Benji?"

"Who the hell is Benji? Nah, keep it local," Nico cuts in while Julie thinks. You don't know what she's thinking about. She'll say Jack every time.

"Fine," you bite back at him, starting to get annoyed, "Jack or Brady?"

"And swimming? You can do better than that, c'mon now. Make it interesting at least."

"Since when are there so many rules to Would You Rather?" Chelsea speaks up in your defence. You feel her warm hand on your wrist; you don't have to face him alone. Nico's replies are grumbles. 

"Jack?" It comes out like a question, as if she's unsure, as if she forgot what the original question was.

"I said choose someone other than Jack," Nico snaps. 

"Dude, relax," Jack says, and when Jack says that you know Nico's getting wound up. He knows Nico, knows the ebbs and flows of his temper. It's getting tense now. Softly, he says, "Just go, Julie."

'Chelsea, if you had to choose, who would you rather see naked? Trevor or Brady?' Uhhh, Brady. Sure.

'Brady, would you rather shower with Sunny or Mila?' Sunny. Sorry Mila.

'Z, would you rather have Chelsea or Mila sit in your lap?' Mila, definitely, Mila.

'Sunshine, would you rather Netflix and chill with Quinn or Nico?'

You think about it. You're not sure what you're thinking about, because you'd rather drink a cup of lake water than be anywhere close to Nico Hischier. You're so familiar with Quinn that despite the night you can see his face, clear in your mind. You're silent for maybe a little too long.

"Are you actually thinking about it?" Nico's voice is provoking. It seems like he's calmed down, anger turning into shit eating mischief. 

"Quinn," you say, jaw tight, controlling your own. But you've been petty since the age of ten, "Easily, Quinn."

"It's not like it would ever happen." Nico mutters. He's good at that, saying things under his breath for everyone to hear.

When Jack tells Nico to calm down, it's because he's getting out of hand.

When Quinn tells Nico to calm down, it's a warning.

"Move on, dude." Quinn doesn't like Nico, not really. You're not fond of Nico either, as fun and funny as he could be. It'd be two summers later that he'd give you a good reason.

.

.

.

Of course it's Jack that brings a girlfriend back to the lake first. Her name is Lola and her hair is a pretty shade of light brown so close to blonde, you're surprised it's natural. You learn that she's really good at wakeboarding. She's funny like Luke, and cute like Mila. She's sweet like you and easy to talk to, like Julie. Julie tries not to like her. But like Nico, she's hard to hate. 

You're fifteen and meeting a girl like Lola makes you acutely aware of how your shirts fit a little tighter in the chest, and how your tummy folds when you sit down. She looks good in anything she puts on. You were never shy about being in your bathing suit before, but this summer you keep your tshirt on for as long as reasonably possible. Because you're fifteen and now you care what people think of you; want boys to like you, look at you the way Jack looks at Lola. 

You were thirteen when you realized Jack is pretty. You're fifteen and you see what Megan saw in your friends. There had to be something in the lake water, because the boys back home don't look anything like they do. They changed every year, bit by bit, sure. But now Luke towers over you, curly hair like the cutest puppy in the pet shop, and Trevor's face is so much sharper, and Brady is as big as he is tall. Quinn looks so fluffy with his hair grown out, and his voice officially dropped. Not that he used it all that much, though he was grumbling about needing a haircut. 

"Don't," you tell him quietly, as quietly as he said it. You're helping him with the boat, or more accurately, he's helping you with yours. Your dad is flying in late, and ever neighbourly, Mr. Hughes sends his best (and really only) boater for your assistance. 

If he heard you, which he did, he doesn't say anything. The only indication that he did might've been in his eyebrows, which raised for less than a moment. He's focused on checking the oil, the engine, you're not really sure, honestly. You're just cleaning the dust off everything. "You finally getting your license this year?" 

"With any luck, yeah." You want to keep him talking now that he’s opened up, "Any tips?" 

"Uhh," he stops what he's doing, doesn't quite look at you. Maybe he's thinking. He's not good with his words so, "I can show you, after this?" 

"Oh." Your eyes widen, surprised by how much you want that. Before you can reply, you hear shouts of your names.

"Morning!" Julie stretches both arms up to the sky, having just woken up. It’s nearly noon. She looks small on your back deck. You wave at her, and she makes her way down the stairs. You hear Quinn sigh softly, and if you weren't paying so much attention to him and his voice you would have missed it. You have maybe thirty seconds before she makes it to the boat. 

"Later, yeah?"

He's quiet, and as Julie approaches he says on a deep exhale, "Yeah, okay." 

Julie puts both hands on the boat, using them to help push her feet up off the dock for a few swings. "How's she lookin'?" she asks, peering over at what Quinn's got his hands on (she doesn't know either.) 

"What?" Quinn asks, a bit too fast. His ears are red as he all but glares at your best friend. Julie squints at him, squints at you.

"The boat?" she deadpans. "When'll she be ready?" 

"Soon," you answer for Quinn, who's retreating back into his shell. “We can probably take it out later this afternoon. I think Quinn said we need to check the… propellers.” 

“Okay…” Julie says slowly, “Sounds boring. I’m gonna go eat breakfast with your mom. She says lunch is ready whenever you’re ready, by the way.”

You both watch her disappear up the deck, and Quinn turns to you, “The propellers are fine? We turned them on earlier.” 

“I know,” you say, even though you really didn’t, “c’mon, I thought you were going to show me stuff?” You look up at him and turn the key to the boat to start the engine. He laughs, eyes widening as he catches up with your train of thought, takes the wheel from you and quickly pulls away from the dock. 

There's not much to driving a boat on a lake, but he tells you what they'll ask of you on the exam, and goes through the motions with you. The two of you drive through every inch of Lake Bloomington, Quinn talking more than you had ever heard him in all your years of knowing him. You like the sound of him, want him to talk to you forever. So you keep him talking. 

You ask him and he tells you. He tells you about his goals in life and when they’ll happen, not if. He tells you he’s not one to dwell on dreams. He’ll play in the NHL someday soon. You didn’t realize it was that serious for him, for any of the Hughes, but you tell him not to forget about you when he’s famous. You’re only partially joking. He tells you how he’ll pay off the lake house mortgage for his parents the moment he can. In his own way, he tells you he'll always be here, on this lake.

.

Jack asks you to take care of Lola while he’s out at the rink with the boys. You have Julie, Chelsea, Mila, and Lola over, and you’re lounging around the patio set on your back deck, the trees fanning you with a gentle breeze every now and then. 

“Yeah, I want one like that, with its face all squished,” Lola is showing Mila a video of a cat on Instagram. They get along well. You got along well with her, too. And as much as she didn’t want to, so did Julie. 

“So, are you guys in relationships, too?” Lola asks, turning a lazy day into an official girls day, hot gossip and all. “I’d be surprised if none of you are.” 

“Chelsea just broke up with her boyfriend,” Mila says, and if they weren’t best friends it would have been jarring to hear it from anyone other than Chelsea. 

“Good for you, girl,” Lola fist bumps Chelsea across the table. “Guys don’t deserve girls, honestly.” 

“What do you mean? Aren’t you with Jack?” Mila asks. You try not to engage her as much, though you want to. Julie is your friend first. 

“I am,” she smiles with a nonchalant shrug. She blushes, shows her love for him on her cheeks. “I just mean, you guys are so awesome to be around. Wars were fought over women, y’know? Boys are lucky to be around you. They don’t always deserve it, though. Chelsea knows what I mean.” 

And you look at Chelsea, who cries into Mila’s shoulder. When she catches her breath, she tells all about her ex. She’s a writer, so she makes you fall in love with him too, drives you through from start to finish, takes you along the bends. She has such a way with words that you’re all crying by the end of it. 

When Jack retrieves Lola it’s half past five. Chelsea’s mom picks the last two up not long after. After dinner, you and Julie lay in the grass by the water. The sun sets extra slowly that day. 

You don’t need to look at Julie to know she’s crying. You put an arm around her, squeeze her tight, rub her back. “I hate that I like her.” She struggles to get the words out. “I hate it so much.” 

“Yeah,” you sigh, “me too.” You hated how she was your age but so much cooler, prettier, wiser. You hated how she made knee length jean shorts look good. You hated how her hair was always perfect, even after wiping out on the water. You hated seeing your best friend cry. 

She looks up from your shoulder when she feels you tense up. She lets out a small sob when she sees Jack and Lola, sitting on the Hughes’ dock, feet in the water. She stands and bolts up your patio stairs with tears flying off her face. She dodges Quinn on her way up. 

“What are you doing here?” You ask when he reaches you. He ducks down, crawls behind some foliage and motions you to come with. 

“Your dad let me in,” he says, but it’s not his regular quiet. He’s being sneaky quiet. 

“Okay, that’s how you got here. What are you doing?” 

“Spying on Jack, obviously. Are you staying or leaving?” He looks up at you and you feel bad that your first thought isn’t Julie, but you know her well enough that she’ll need time to calm down before you can talk to her again anyways. You make yourself small next to him, leaning towards him to peek around the trees in your way. 

They’re laughing, and you note the way Jack’s hand rests on the deck, one arm crossed behind her. Not quite around her yet, but he fixes that quickly. He reaches sideways and hugs her to him. She lays her head on his shoulder and he doesn’t let go. The clouds are pink and they cradle the sun, casting the loveliest light over the lake. It’s picture perfect, their silhouettes on the dock and the setting sun. 

As you spy on Jack and Lola watching the sunset, you realize that you’re watching the sunset with Quinn.

.

.

.

You're sixteen when your parents let you have a boyfriend, and you're surprised they like him enough to invite him to the lake that summer. He gets well along with Julie, who insists on inviting a friend of her own so she's not third wheeling all summer. You tell her that the gang will still be there, it's not like she's stuck with the two of you. Your parents seem more understanding than you, and let her bring Olivia. You like Olivia too, so of course you're excited to bring more friends to the lake.

Your boyfriend, Jason, is the first guy from school that asked you to hang out and didn't make it weird. He's got a pretty face, is tall and fills out his tshirts with his broad shoulders. He's nice to you and nice to your friends and that's kind of all you look for in a guy at sixteen. Jason Robertson is popular in your middle school and he's popular on the lake, too. Maybe that's why Nico doesn't like him.

To Julie's joy, Lola is no longer in the picture. Olivia and Quinn get along well. You're surprised that he drops his resting bitch face when he talks to her. You suspect the only reason she's not going for Jack is because she knows Julie is. Jason sits in the driver's seat behind you, and you're perched on his knee as you drive your dad's boat down the lake. His arm holds you like a seatbelt, and he chats easily with Trevor, Chelsea, and Mila who are nearby. The only person Jason hasn't had much time with is Quinn, which is fine, because he always seems to be talking to Olivia. Since when does he talk so much? 

"Eyes on the road, yeah?" Jason says, chin on your bare shoulder. His hand covers yours and pulls the boat back on path. His voice is the same pitch as Quinn's, and it's among the things you like about him. You hum absently, used to him being so close to you.

"I can take over, Sunshine?" Nico offers out of nowhere. He doesn't like you, but he seems to like Jason even less, hates him enough to be nice to you. He calls you by your nickname every chance he gets- something Jason doesn't have for you. Nico holds it over him like it's his. You have the right mind to tell him off, but you're not in your right mind. You were out on the lake with all your best friends, and you were getting annoyed, and for once it wasn't because of Nico. 

"Yeah, fine," you let go of the wheel irresponsibly, walking away from Jason. He's fine to be left alone, after all, everyone else likes him. You walk to the back of the boat where they're wakeboarding and sit down next to Julie in the corner. She's next to Jack, her usual spot, and immediately notices you fuming. She turns to you, asks if you're okay with her eyes. You give her a nod, close your eyes and throw your head back on the seat. The Michigan sun is hot, uncomfortably so.

The Hughes installed a pool table in the basement, so of course all summer long there is a running tournament. There's a leaderboard on the mantle, keeping score. In an attempt to climb the standings, Nico gets alcohol involved. Brady convinces Matthew to boot, who only agrees if he stays to supervise. He sets you guys up with beer pong and drinks a bottle in front of the TV, playing Super Smash Bros. with Jack, Julie, and Mila. It's hard to get Quinn and Luke away from the pool table. It's hard to get Olivia away from Quinn. 

You don't like the taste of beer so you're really avoiding losing. Trevor cheers on Nico and Chelsea across the table, and Brady helps you and Jason catch stray ping pong balls. Jason's on the basketball team, so you figure he'd be good at this, and he is. 

It could be that he's drunk from drinking all the times Chelsea didn't want to. It could be because Jason's name is still above his on the chalkboard. It could also be because he just lost beer pong to him. Nico didn't like your boyfriend Jason, and he was being so nice to you to spite him that you almost forgot how awful he could be. 

Nico whips a ping pong ball at him, misses. "Could it be more obvious that she doesn't even fucking like you, dude?" He's not yelling, but he might as well have been, the way the room falls silent. "She's been into Quinn since like, the sixth grade. Everyone here knows you're a cuck." Jack comes quickly, and you feel Jason breathing heavy beside you, until he's not. He leaves through the basement door, and you don't realize you're crying until Julie grabs you, wipes your face with her thumbs. 

You hate the quiet, the room dead silent aside from Jack speaking to Nico in a hushed fury. You hate the way Olivia stares at you, eyes wide next to Quinn. Above all, you hate that Nico reads you for everyone like a children’s book at story time. 

Julie’s now talking to you, but it's like you’re underwater, you can’t make out a thing. You look at Nico, who’s arguing with Jack. Behind him you see Quinn, who puts his cue stick down, lays it on the table. 

“So I’m just supposed to let him walk all over me? Get real,” Nico snaps, and takes a shove at Jack. Trevor grabs Nico’s shoulder and pulls him back. Nico looks at you, his gaze as hot as his words are cold, “I’m not even wrong, am I?” 

“Nico, you ruin everything.” You scream at him and take off through the same door as Jason. Your voice cracks at the end, all the hurt for them to hear. You’ve never been this upset before, not at home, and certainly not at the lake. This was your happy place. 

Julie doesn’t run after you, and stops Luke from doing so. She knows you, knows you need to calm down before anyone can talk to you. She looks at Nico like he shot you, and he groans, rubs his hands over his face. He fears he's done more damage than it was worth. It's not his fault you were in the crossfire.

You cross through the trees between your houses, look up and see the light in Jason’s room on. He’s talking on the phone. You can’t face him, can’t face your parents right now, not with how much you’re crying. You sneak down the steps towards the lake. It’s very dark, the moon and stars covered by clouds that begin to cry with you. 

The rain is cold, yet the night is warm. It doesn’t rain often in the summertime, but when it does it pours. You like the way it feels, soaking your hair and your tshirt. Your tears run warm down your face, the only evidence you’re still crying. You sit there, mesmerized by the feeling of water falling from the sky and your eyes.

“Julie said you weren’t in your room.” You don’t need to look at him to know. There was only one person who had ever sat here with you. “Thought I’d find you here.”

“How’d you know?” Your voice doesn't sound like your own, weak and hoarse. Quinn lowers himself to the ground, sits down next to you. Every breath feels like a sob.

“Lucky guess.” You feel him shrug. This is the most he’s spoken to you all summer. The realization makes you cry even more. You’re soaked, and soon he will be too. You feel him place something over your shoulders, pull the hood gently over your head. You look over at him, now just in his t-shirt. His eyes look back at you softly, the ghost of a smile across his face. He leans back on his hands, one arm crosses behind you.

Jason's parents fly him back home the next day. You dread September but decide to make the most of what's left of your summer vacation. Quinn's driving the boat around, and it's just the six of you today. You notice that Olivia keeps her distance, instead lets Luke entertain her. He's entertaining, for sure. 

"What are you doing?" Julie calls up to Quinn, slight alarm in her voice. You notice him slowing into a dock on the left, connected to the Hischier's house. Nico's standing there, as if he was expecting it. He's got his hands in his pockets and from where you're sitting you can see an ugly bruise around his eye forming. Quinn doesn't reply, just looks at you and calls you over with a tilt of his head. You do so, and everyone follows to the front of the boat, wanting to hear what he has to say. 

"I'm sorry," he says, and for the first time, you think he actually feels bad about what he's done. The black eye certainly couldn't feel good. Quinn stays in the drivers' seat. He knows you can face Nico on your own. If anything happens, you have Luke and Jack by your side. 

"Yeah? For what?" Your words are dull when you want them to be sharp. You're mad but you don't hate him like you want to. You grew up with him, and he's made you laugh a million times. It's hard to hate guys like Nico.

"For making you cry," he says gently, and you know it's the truth. He apologizes for what he's sorry for, because he's not sorry about what he said to Jason, not sorry for driving him away. "It wasn't cool and..." Nico's eyes drift from yours for a moment, behind you, to Quinn, "...I know it's not true." He lets out a weak laugh, "I mean, you and Quinn-"

You stop him before he can make things worse for himself, point to your own eye and ask, "That hurt?" 

"Yeah, fuck me. Like, every time I blink." he whines. 

"Good,” you say, and hear Quinn laugh. It's beneath the sound of the water swishing against the boat, but your ears are so tuned to him; you wouldn't miss such a pretty sound.

"We good, then?" 

"We're good." Quinn quickly peels away from the platform and drives around in a tight circle, makes the water come up and spray Nico, who's left standing on the dock. He yells and cusses at the boat, but he laughs as much as you do. You wave at him getting smaller in the distance. He flips you off, and you give it right back with a smile. 

You walk over to Quinn, lean against the wall behind the drivers seat, while his brothers and your friends return to the comfy cushions at the back of the boat. “Thanks, Q,” you make his nickname even shorter. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t make it weird, but you know he heard you. You know by the way the tops of his ears turn pink and his shoulders roll back. He looks up at you over his shoulder quickly. The moment felt like an hour, his eyes look through you like you're made of glass. You blinked and he was looking forward, driving responsibly.

.

.

.

You're seventeen when Julie stops holding out for Jack. She's probably still his biggest fan, but she's not hung up on him like she used to be. She goes to homecoming with a guy that smiles like him. You don't go with anyone, for once. Neither does Jason. He's kind, kinder than you deserve, when he doesn't let anyone say anything bad about you when people gossip about your breakup. 

You sit on the bleachers with the other dateless kids, scrolling on your phone. It's homecoming for Jack and Quinn, too. You open Quinn's story after seeing Jack post from the dance floor. The night feels even lonelier, seeing him repost a girl's story. There are no words, no emojis, it's just him in a suit, with his arm around a girl in a hot pink dress. She seems really close to him. He's holding her really close to him. You wonder if he'll bring her back to the lake, if you'll ever meet her. You wonder if he felt this way when you introduced them to Jason.

You're nervous for the Hughes to arrive this year- they come from Toronto, a little farther, travel a little longer. Luke texts you like a warning. They'll arrive this evening, Quin'll have the boat ready by tomorrow, they can't wait to see you. You tell him to help this time, and maybe he might. Your dad got the boat all ready, and you sit next to it, alone on your dock. It's 6:00pm and the sun is still high enough to light the sky. You feel footsteps ripple across the wood, more so than you hear them. You look over your shoulder, surprised to see Quinn coming down towards you. 

His face is slimmer though his cheeks are still full. His hair is shorter than you prefer, but still fluffy, like you like. Before you know it, the sun starts its descent, and he's in front of you, and you're breaking your neck to look up at him from where you sit. "Hey," you look back at his house, see the lights turn on one by one, "What're you doing here?" He belongs on this lake, so that's not what you're asking. "Shouldn't you be unpacking?" 

"Saw you and wanted to say hi," he shrugs, taking his hands out of his pockets. You've heard it before, though you can't quite remember when he stirs your thoughts like this. You smile and stand up to greet him properly. He's taller, you tilt your chin up ever so slightly, feel your eyes raise to meet his. He's actually pretty lanky, though it's not so obvious when he's next to Luke.

"Wanna take her for a spin?" You hop up onto your dad's boat, knowing he'll follow. He belongs on this lake. He has his drivers license now, he updates you, as he drives the boat down the lake. He's always been this way; first to the finish line. He's a high achiever, however nonchalant he is about it. You congratulate him, joke that he should help you get yours too, like he did your boat license. Whoever @abbeeclarke is, she doesn't make an appearance at the lake house. He doesn't mention her once, and neither do you. You let it go and avoid wearing hot pink. 

You’re seventeen when you’re down bad for Quinn Hughes. You get it. You get his appeal. He’s stoic and gloomy and he’s all sharp edges. He looks like a question waiting for an answer, but you know if asked, he'll tell. He’s someone you want to like you. You like seeing the drastic change in his face when he sees you coming his way. How he relaxes, leans back; how he smiles small and wide. His shoulders shake when he laughs. You like when you exchange glances cross the boat, or the basement; you like the way his gaze makes it feels like it’s just you and him. 

From playing Would You Rather in the grass to beer pong in the Hughes' basement, the stakes only get higher. After all, a game is only fun when someone has something to lose. You watch Mila spin the bottle. It lands on Trevor who practically drags her to the closet, and closes the door before anyone can even start the timer.

Everyone picks up a Wii remote- readying up for another round of Mario Kart. You learn that three laps across three maps take about seven minutes to complete. You're in second, until you blue shell Quinn for first. He doesn't lose often, grumbles to you, "You sure you need driving lessons?" 

You laugh, the alcohol in you swaying you off balance, and you straighten yourself with a hand on his bicep. Chelsea pours shots for everyone who doesn't make top three. The glasses hit the table the same time Trevor and Mila come out of the closet, giggling and wiping their mouths.

The group circles up around the bottle again. Quinn spins and you sit on your knees, watching it slow to a stop. It lands on Chelsea, and you can't help but see how much she looks like that girl on Quinn's Instagram. Chelsea doesn't move, looks across the circle to Quinn, and you beside him. Her eyes flicker to yours, and you can't make out what she's saying with her eyes. She doesn't move. 

"Pass," Quinn pours himself two as per the rules of the game, using your shot glass for the second. The group isn't quiet about it, the exception created for the Hughes' sake on the odd chance a player lands on their sibling. It's never used to pass just for the sake of passing. "I'm calling it a night," he says, doesn't look at you when he leaves up the stairs. You hear the basement door shut at the top, and that's when you realize you're staring after him. 

"Fuckin' buzzkill, eh?" Nico huffs, changes the game. "Chelsea, truth or dare?" We move away from the bottle on the floor, settling into the conversation pit. 

"Truth," Chelsea's smart. Nico's dares aren’t worth hearing. You all know each other well enough. When Nico's asking, it's more like Truth or Drink. 

"Boo. Did you want to go in the closet with Quinn?" 

"Not really." She does it again, looks at you. She smiles, says evenly, "Sunshine, truth or dare?"

"Dare." You're drunk.

"Sneak into Quinn's room." Chelsea's words give the night new energy. This game, on par with Would You Rather, is interesting now that the stakes are raised. Trevor and Brady's eyebrows raise, and they drop their conversation, turn their heads towards the game.

"That's all?" You're drunk. You have to be. 

"Come back with the shirt he was wearing, to prove you did," she adds, and they jeer you to your feet.

"It was a Leafs' shirt," Luke clarifies for everyone. You look at Julie, who shakes the bottle of Absolut watermelon. You can always back out, you just have to drink. Rules are rules.

Jack distracts her with a hand over hers, setting the bottle back on the table. He nods for you to go with a mischievous grin, "Quinn's is the one next to the bathroom." 

Bedrooms were off limits, always has been. No matter how much your parents liked the Hughes boys and no matter how much their parents trusted you. It's why the Hughes renovated their whole basement for you crazy kids. You take the stairs step by step, hearing Nico grumbling about, 'I swear to god...'

You know the Hughes' house well, what with all grabbing emergency towels and helping Mrs. Hughes pack boat lunch, and all the times your parents dropped you off on date night; you've become familiar with it's halls and creaky steps over the years. All the bedrooms are on the second floor, which is uncharted territory for you. Identical white doors, you choose the right one thanks to Jack. You don't knock- it'd be too loud, with his parents' room at the other end of the hall. There's no light under their door, which makes sense as it's half past one. You open the door quickly, step in, and rest your back on the other side of the door. You don't want to get caught in his room, but you don't want to get caught in the hall outside of it either. 

Quinn's room is exactly what you expected, not that you spend much time thinking about it. It's dark, but your eyes adjust within a few breaths. There are posters of athletes on his wall, hockey sticks sitting in the corner. There are clothes all across the floor. The laundry bin by his closet isn't even full but there are clothes spilling out of it, like he just missed the basket. There are random bottles of water scattered like easter eggs, the floor, his bedside table, his windowsill. His window is open, and it's strikingly cold. 

"I don't want to talk about it, Luke," you hear Quinn groan from his bed. He's under the covers, facing the wall where Sidney Crosby stares back at him. 

"It's- It's me," you whisper, press yourself against the door even more. He stills, silent, then sits. The blanket rustles as he jolts up. There's a girl in his room. He's eighteen and there's a girl in his room and that girl is you. 

He gets out from under the covers and swings his legs over the side of the bed. The moon beyond his bedroom window casts light on the right side of his face. Your breath hitches when you meet his eyes. He doesn't kick you out, doesn't get angry. He asks if you're okay. "Come here," he says, urges you forward, "I can't hear you." 

You cross the room towards him, maybe four steps, and sit at the very edge of his bed. Not too close, not close at all, in fact. Not enough to make it weird, you hope. You tell him your mission. "I need that shirt." 

He grabs a handful of his shirt, the one he's wearing, "Has to be this one?" he questions, watches you swallow and nod silently. He wonders who put you up to this, wonders who he has to thank tomorrow. Because he smiles at you, backlit by the moon. You're glowing, each stray strand of your messy hair frames you like a halo. "I'll take it off, if you take off yours." 

What? The question doesn't make it past your throat. The same Quinn who passed on making out in a closet, now trying to get you topless in his bedroom. On his bed. He's drunk, you tell yourself, drunk out of his mind. He has to be.

He doesn't hesitate for a moment, pulls his shirt over his head. It's nothing you haven't seen before- he's shirtless half the summer, soft abs on display. But it makes sense for him to be shirtless on the water. Not here in front of you, in his sweatpants with his hair all soft and messy. The moonlight casts shadows across his face that remind you he's older, he's got a whole year on you. You try to remind yourself he's the same Quinn that tries to carry all the groceries in one run, the same Quinn that helps your dad with the grill, and you with the boat. He's familiar, face impossibly unreadable but you know where to look for answers. His eyes, ghostly in the night, are having fun. He's having fun with you. He holds his shirt out to you, eggs you on, "I'll trade you." 

Your fingers find the bottom of your own, and you begin to pull it up, slow because you're unsure. He thinks you're slow because you're a tease, audibly exhaling when you finally get it past your neck. The room is way too cold to be in sweat shorts and a bralette, but it's his words that makes you shiver. He's seen you in a bikini before, sees it all the time, but his eyes fall in a way they never would in the daylight. You lean forward to put your shirt in his other hand. He tosses it across the room, and when you reach for his blue Toronto Maple Leafs shirt, he drops it before you even feel the fabric.

He pulls you forward to him, and you struggle to keep your yelp of surprise in. Your hand grabs his bare shoulder and pushes him down on his back. His puts his hands on your hips, helps steady you as if he wasn't the one who knocked you off balance. He watches your face closely, a few centimetres above his, as he tests the water; a hand on the back of your knee adjust you so that he's in between them. His hand stays on the back of your thigh, searing. He's got you right where he wants you. 

"Tell me to stop and I will." Is the last thing he says before he pulls your lips, and your hips, down on his. You'd be lying if you said you never thought about what his kisses would be like. Despite every opportunity, the bottle never landed on Quinn. Kissing him now, you fear you'd never be able to stop thinking about it.

He's thorough with his lips on yours and a hand in your hair. The hand on your hip guides you over his lap. You've never been kissed or held or wanted quite like this before. You feel him want you through his sweatpants, feel him want you on his tongue. He's minty, having must have brushed his teeth, but his breaths come in puffs of watermelon. You exhale a whine when his mouth leaves yours in favour for your cheek, then your neck. You don’t realize your hips are moving on their own until his hands are on your breasts, pushing them together for him. He kisses soft skin above your bralette, the thin fabric doing little to hide you. He squeezes hard enough to make you moan out. 

You both freeze for one moment, two moments- making sure no doors open, no lights turn on in the hall. 

He brings your attention back to him, bites hard on the inside of your breast, then soothes it with a suck that slowly starts to hurt more than the bite. You whimper, and he stops, looks up at you. He sits up and you sit up with him, straddling him properly now, sitting on your knees on either side of him. You use them as leverage to ride his lap more diligently. His hands grab your ass, fingers slip up under the hem of your sweat shorts. He squeezes softly and pulls, spreading you apart, creating a better slot for him to thrust against. You feel the difference immediately, melting into his chest, head over his shoulder. Everything about him is hot; the warmth from his body, his soft groans, how he looks at you through the hair that falls over his eyes.

He kisses you, different than the first, completely overwhelms you with him. All you can focus on is the drag of his hard cock against you, the position so perfectly right. It’s enough to get you off, chase something you don't know how to catch, and you moan freely into his mouth. You ride his lap eagerly, and if you were sober you might've been embarrassed showing him how much you want him. 

“Be quiet for me,” he whispers as he pulls your head back, exposes your neck to him. He kisses, kisses, bites, then sucks. Not too high, nowhere too obvious. He still wants your dad to like him. He doesn’t want to get caught, and he doesn’t want to stop, and you’re gonna make him cum in his pants if he keeps listening to you. You whimper under erratic breaths; he’s so incredibly hard under you. Once he's satisfied he's given your tits the attention they deserve, he flips you over, lays you down in his double bed. He holds himself over you with one arm by your head, and his hand by your side. Your legs wrap around him, keeping him there, and he can't keep the smile off his face, looking at you. 

Because it's you in his bed. It's you, eyes half lidded and shirtless and wanting him as much as he wants you. It's you, lips as soft as he always thought they'd be, kisses sweeter than he could dream. It's you, all marked up because of him. You pull him back to earth with a tiny tug on the garter of his sweatpants. He shakes his head, pecks to your lips. It's too short, he notes, as you follow after him, back arching as he pulls away. He comes back down to give you a deeper one, because he'll do nothing if not satisfy you.

"I'll take mine off if you take off yours," you whisper to him, slip a finger in the waistband of not his sweatpants, but his boxers. You tug at the clothes he has left. He swallows thickly, because he wants nothing more.

"Can't." It's the first time he sounds as affected as you feel. He closes his eyes, so he doesn't have to see you pout. Not that it matters, he's memorized every expression you've ever worn. "I... I don't have any condoms on me."

You remember that he's raised by a woman, and you're glad but it doesn't keep you from sighing softly. You remove your hand from his pants, bring your arms up around his neck. Your legs tighten around him, bring him back down against you. You wonder if he's aware of how wet you are through your shorts. He doesn't move, doesn't take things further, though you can see the want in his eyes. He's got more self control than you do, you'll give him that. Your hips move against him slowly, calves pushing him into you as hard as you please. You look him in the eyes when you tell him, "I don't care." 

He watches you, blue eyes flicker over every detail of your face before he speaks, "You're drunk." 

"I don't want you to stop." 

His head drops down to your shoulder, lays a kiss there. He's strained, groans into your skin, "You're an angel."

"Please, Quinn." 

"Can't," he repeats, and he sounds even less convincing than the first time. He hugs you, drops his body to yours, envelops you for a moment. Your hips still under his weight, but you don't find it in you to complain. You want this part of him, too. He rolls off you to the lay on his side, holds you to him. His thumb rubs the soft skin at your hip, dips under your shorts. His touch is so comforting, you almost let it distract you. 

"I want it to be you." You're making things really hard. You're making him really hard.

You feel his hand slip under your shorts, and you're absolutely shut up. At first he's a little off target, but he's quick to find you where you need him, hot and wet, wetter than his dreams. You wonder if it's his first time too, as he runs a fingertip against you softly, too soft. He feels how much you want him, his finger dips inside despite the wet fabric of your panties. Your thighs fall open, give him access to all of you. 

"Fuck," he mutters, and leans down to catch your parted lips. He wonders if it's your first time, when he slips his tongue in your mouth as he pushes your panties aside. His finger slips in so easily, you're so wet for him. He pulls away, breathless, and lays his forehead against yours, eyes shut tight as he feels inside you, soft and squishy and squeezing. He pulls back, drags along your walls in a way you need more of. Your hips lift, chase his hand, and he pushes back in, slow and firm, pressing your hips into the mattress. He sees your mouth fall open and he's quick to cover your mouth with his other hand, muffles the lustful sob that falls from your lips. 

"Shh," he tuts, picks up the pace, which makes it worse. You're being louder than his palm can silence, and it makes him panic and loop his thumb in your mouth, pressing on your tongue. Your lips close around it, and he feels your moans vibrate as you start to suck it. He comes to the realization that he's probably going to cum in his pants tonight, but it feels good. You feel so good around his fingers. Your hands grip his forearm and his hand stutters. He adds a second finger, and your pussy grips them in a way that makes it hard to move, but he persists. You seem to like it when his palm is flush against you, so he does just that. The hand hooked into your mouth cups your face, and you lean into his touch, sucking quietly. Your eyes flutter open, and he almost lets himself go with way you're looking at him. You've got one hand gripping his straining forearm, and bring your other up to gently hold his palm to your face, like you're cherishing his touch. The arm you grip is getting tired, his wrist not used to being in this angle, but he's a high achiever, always has been. 

"Quinn, I-" you try to say with his thumb in your mouth, but you're falling apart in his hands. He can feel it, hear it the way you're gushing around his fingers. "Oh, god," your back arches, presses the fabric of your bralette against his chest. He sees you through it, fingers pump steadily until you finally still in his arms. You curl up in his chest, and he wipes his fingers on his sheets before wrapping his arms around you. It's quiet now, your breaths the loudest sound in the room. You catch your breath before he does and move to straddle him again. He lays on his back, stretches his arms before putting his hands firm on your waist. He has a dopey smile on his face, smirks up at you and holds you still, doesn't let you try anything. "Quinn," you whine, thinking you were getting somewhere with him. 

He sits up, leans back against his headboard, and you follow, inch ever closer. "We're not fucking tonight," he tells you, and before the words can break your heart he touches his forehead to yours, "I want you," he assures you, "God, I want you so bad," he confesses, and your hips thrust on impulse. He chuckles, and his arms wrap around you again, pulls you into a hug that you fear you’ll never stop craving. "If you still want it tomorrow-"

"Tomorrow, then." You say, before he can convince himself otherwise. 

He smiles small, presses a kiss to your forehead, repeats, "Tomorrow, then." You nod, feeling mutually understood. You swing your leg over, get off his lap. "Where're you going?" he asks when you stand from the bed.

"Home?" You're trying to find your shirt from the floor in the dark.

"You sleep over all the time," he tries to reason. 

"Yeah, downstairs with everyone else," You stop searching to look at him, laying in his bed. Shirtless, messier than he was before. You forget where you're going with your argument. "I'm not supposed to be here." He sighs, knows you're right, despite everything he wants. He gets up from his bed, and you feel small when he walks over and hands you a shirt, his grumbly silhouette daunting in dark. He pulls a hoodie over his head. "Where are you going?"

"At least let me walk you home." He looks over his shoulder at you from his closet. He walks back to you, puts a hoodie in your hands. "It's cold," he mutters, seemingly back to his stoic self again, but he always looks at you softly. The two of you escape from his room, and escape down the stairs. You can hear Brady and Nico snoring behind the closed door leading to the basement. You leave through the back, and he leads with his hands in his pockets. Your face is hot thinking about them and the way they felt on you tonight. The night breeze cools your skin. You think back to when you held his hand to your face, wonder what your hand would feel like in his. 

Between your dock and his, he doesn't take his hands out of his pockets once. He doesn't reach for your hand, he doesn't even brush his arm to yours. He keeps his distance and you're painfully aware of the space between you. You should have taken it as a warning sign.

The next day you're driving your dads’ boat, dropping everyone back home because apparently you had 'drank the least.'

Julie had stumbled home before you woke up, and was surprised to see you in your bed. She gave you a weird look when on possibly the hottest day of the year you stepped out in a tshirt, but was way too hungover to ask questions. She helped you lug a cooler full of gatorade and ice onto the boat before sitting and texting the rest of them to hurry up, if they wanted a ride home. She opted to stay home to sleep, like Luke and Jack likely were. You wonder if Quinn will be the boy who cried hangover.

You hear the soft thumps of rubber on wood, the telltale sound of your friends marching down the steps. If you didn't know any better, you were witnessing the walk of shame. You would definitely be a part of it, had you not left the night early. You smiled, waved at Quinn, who waved back, herding the sorry teens down the dock. 

You met them at the side, and the two of you ensured everyone got on the boat safely. Quinn sat beside Trevor and Brady, while simultaneously boxing Nico in from walking right off the side. Chelsea and Mila held each other, slumped peacefully. You move the boat slowly up the lake. It's just past noon and the sun is at it's highest point. 

Occasionally you feel Quinn's eyes on your back, but his current task is too important to walk away from. Your swimsuit tie is visible at the nape of your neck, but you keep your dark grey t-shirt on. If Brady walks into the lake right now, Quinn didn't know how he was going to get him back in the boat. He's honestly out of breath, glad that Nico passed out in the middle of the boat, hopefully of exhaustion and nothing else. He's panting when you pull over at your first stop, Trevor’s house. Quinn walks him all the way up to his back deck, the blonde slumped against him the whole time. He did the same with Nico, and then you helped him with Chelsea and Mila. 

You hand him a gatorade when he returns to the boat alone after dropping off Brady. "Do you want to switch? I can drive back," he offers, and you move to let him take the wheel. He reaches around you, trapping you between him and the wheel, and you hold your breath. He rests his chin on your shoulder as he turns the boat around, puts the boat in 9MPH, just has to keep the wheel straight until you see your house. He keeps one hand on the wheel and wraps the other around you, slips his hand under up your t-shirt. Your hands are on the wheel uselessly, purely decorative at this point. You find yourself arching, pressing back into him when his hand grips your breast, groping you in broad daylight. He had sailed a bit further into the lake, farther from the docks and parked boats on the side. "Angel, what's with the shirt?" With the hand under your shirt he tugs the collar down, finds what he’s looking for.

He groans deeply, looking at the dark hickeys across your chest, "What's the matter?" He pulls up your shirt, looks over your shoulder when he lifts it over your bikini top, the love bites on display for him "Don't want them to know you're all mine?" His lips land on your neck, threatening to give you one for all to see. He presses his erection to the swell of your ass and you moan out. He takes the opportunity to stuff the hem of your tshirt into your mouth. It serves two purposes; it keeps your body in full view for him, and muffles the draw of attention your utterly pornographic moans are. 

"Both hands on the wheel, right angel? Keep the boat straight," he tells you. It's not hard, and it shouldn't be as hard as it is when he's grinding against you, rubbing his length between your bathing suit and his shorts. His fingers slip under the strings of your bikini bottoms, just so he can grip your hips and feel the skin unobstructed. He can barely keep his eyes off your marked up tits and occasionally one hand will come up and show them some love. He sits down on the drivers' seat, pulling you down with him. It's easier to rub against him, sitting on his lap like this. The angle has him dragging along your clit and the friction of his shorts on your thighs have you blushing and sweating.

“You still want this?” he asks you, breathing so attractively jagged. 

“Kind of unfair to ask,” you look over your shoulder at him, “when you’ve got me like this, don't you think?” He chuckles, puts a hand on the wheel and straightens the boat while you continue to grind on him as you please. You subconsciously trace the length of him, gauge his size. 

“I want it,” he tells you, low and honest, “Can you blame a guy for trying to convince you?” To your surprise, he pushes you down his lap, closer to his knee, holds you still there. “Tonight, then?” You groan. He's teasing you. 

He definitely didn't expect you to place two hands on his knee and start riding his thigh. He must have underestimated how close you were, and if you turned your head to look at him you would have seen his eyes widen in the realization that he can make you cum again, right here and now.

"Holy shit, Sunshine," he groans, and your heart flutters, remember who you are and who he is. Jack and Luke's older brother. The high achiever. The best driving instructor on the lake. "You're gonna make me cum in my pants again," he leans forward, presses his chest to your back, whispers softly in your ear, "Fuck." 

You drag yourself across his thigh at a steady pace, the sheen of sweat building on you glimmered in the sunlight. You're lucky he's gagged you with your own shirt, because his hand had moved from your breast to the top of your swimsuit bottoms, and let himself in. He was pleasantly surprised with how wet you were, your swimsuit doing its job at absorbing liquid. He lubricated his fingers with your honey and laid his hand to your front. You wonder if he knew, or if the stutter of your hips gave you away, but he found your clit and began to pet it, back and forth, firm and fast. He turned the boat quickly, facing away from the houses and shut off the engine. He wasn't that much of of risk taker. 

His free hand snakes up your breast, gives it a feel before slotting his wrist in between them, reaching up to pull you back into him by your throat. His grip isn't tight, but it's firm enough to hold you in place, back to his chest. It's harder for you to ride his thigh at the angle he's forced you into, but his fingers never leave your clit, now rubbing you in circles. "Is this how bad you want it?" he laughs in your ear, "Tell me you want it." All you could do is whimper and nod frantically, chasing your finish line. He smiles, and the hand on your throat helps take the shirt from your mouth. Your shirt falls down over his arm, wrinkly and damp. He turns your head to him, tilts your mouth up to meet his. 

"I want it," You say agains his lips. You lay your head back onto his shoulder, tell Quinn, "I want you." 

He looks at your face for what feels like hours, as he gropes your tits lazily, not letting up on his attention to your clit. You rub on his thigh erratically, his grip on your throat doing wonders to hide your desperate whines. "Oh, Angel, you're killin' me. You have no idea how much I want to be inside you right now," Quinn had never sounded so needy in his life, "Need you to want it."

"Q..." He quickly thinks to turn the engine on, hopefully mask the sound of you letting go. For the second time in the last twelve hours, you're breathing heavily against each other. "So..." you start, swinging your leg over so that you were sitting properly in his lap, "Tonight, then?" You lift your tshirt to wipe the sweat from the back of your neck. 

He catches one last glimpse at your hickey covered tits and makes note to rub a few out before he sees you later. 

They say the hottest day of the summer tends to feel like the longest. It surely did, as the group lounged in and around the Hischier house pool, still recovering from the night before. The Hughes had a pool, too, but Nico's had better shading and seating all around.

You lay on a shaded couch with Julie, Mila, and Chelsea while the boys sat in and along the pool. Luke and Brady drifted on large floaties, and the rest of the guys either sat on the stairs or just had their feet in the water. The gathering needed no scheduling, it was an unspoken rule of the lake that every recovery day is a pool day. Quinn's got his back to you, and you're burning holes into him with the way you're staring. 

"You alright, Sunny?" Julie waves her hand in your face. You don't want to say anything yet, not until there's something to tell. Until then, you can't tell her that Quinn's acting weird, and part of it is because he's not acting weird at all. He's being so normal and it frustrates you. 

"Yeah, I'm good," you assure her, finally redirecting your attention and looking at her. 

"You're like, glowing," she says, though there's not much energy in her voice. She's hungover after all. She looks and sounds suspicious of you, if anything. Or maybe she's just suffering.

"Thank you?" You try to smile your way out of admitting anything. You'll tell her after tonight, get the whole story. 

"Why don't we get in the pool?" Mila suggests already tying up her hair.

"I'm good here," you say quickly, "I don't want to get my hair wet today." Your friends look at you oddly, but don't push. They leave you on your own with a splash as they enter the water. You're not left alone for long, as Luke hops over the back of the couch to land next to you. 

"Hey, Sunshine," he says, and just off his tone you know he knows something. It has to do with the way he can't keep his voice even to save his life. Could just be puberty... Your eyes narrow and you cross your arms over your chest. 

"Hi Lukey," your voice is dripping with suspicion.

"How'd mission impossible go last night?" he asks, glances at you and then his eyes bounce off everyone in the pool. Luke Hughes was probably the most shit-eating person you had ever met, and so far he was playing it very cool. 

"What'd he tell you?" you deadpan quietly. There's panic in your voice and in your eyes, while his glow with mischief. 

"Nothin'," Luke Hughes was certainly the most shit-eating person you had ever met, "Why, is there somethin' to tell?" 

Your face heats up, as if it the heat wasn't already unbearable in a tshirt. You were in the shade and the air was warm. "Shut up, Luke," you strike his arm with a fist and he feigns injury. Another body drops onto the couch, a little wet for your liking. The cushion starts to soak up the added pool water, and you inch away from Trevor and closer to Luke, who's at least dry. 

"What's the deal, Sunshine?" Trevor's arm hangs over the back of the couch, "You're wearing more clothes than you have all summer." Of course he'd notice. He tugs at the collar of your cropped tshirt, and it hikes up a bit, the hem just lifting to show a bit of under boob. Thankfully you're still wearing your swimsuit despite having no plans to actually swim today, and probably for the next few days.

"Fuck off, Z," Luke swats his hand. Maybe he does know something, but you could care less in the moment, tugging your shirt down hard. Trevor raises his hands in apology when Quinn sits down on the other side of Luke. He doesn't look happy, though when does he ever, and you can't tell if he's glaring at you or Trevor. Deciding that you're not going to stick around and find out, you get up to get yourself a drink.

"Sunshine, can you bring the cooler down when you get back?" Nico calls from the pool when he sees you're heading inside. You wave your hand, letting him know you will. It's cool inside the Hischier house; they have air conditioning, after all. You feel your sweat drying two steps past the door. You kick off your shoes and head straight to the fridge, sighing happily as the cold air rushes you when you open it. You grab a cold can and press it to your cheek before cracking it open and quenching your thirst. 

"Man, it's cold in here," Quinn says, coming through the door. You tense up, not in the mood to engage him right now. You turn around, ready to give him an earful, when he sets down the cooler by your feet. "Nico forgot that he had brought it down already, just needs a a refill," Quinn explains, already opening a bag of ice and pouring it in. You put your drink down and help him by dropping some beverages from the fridge into the ice filled cooler. He doesn’t say a thing, and neither do you, despite having a lot in your head. Do you even like me? 

The refrigerator door closes and this time it’s your thoughts that chill you, enough to make you shiver. Because he never once said he likes you. Sure, he said he wanted you, but at seventeen you knew those two things weren’t one and the same.

The hickeys start to feel like plain bruises, your chest aching at the realization. Through all his gloominess, you liked him. You liked him when he had braces. You liked him through every bad haircut. You liked him in the summer rain, under the hot Michigan sun, and in the seasons when he was nowhere near. But he was a pearl, and you were still trying to figure out how to shuck an oyster. 

It went against every standard you held yourself to. But you like him, so you sneak out to meet him by his dad’s boat, late into the night. He stands on his dock at one in the morning, hands in his pockets.

Do you like me? The question is there, on the tip of your tongue, but you can't bring yourself to ask, ruin whatever could happen between you. He takes your hand, helps you onto the boat, and with the engine low, drives across to the quiet side of the lake and turns it off.

It's so quiet you can hear the water lapping at the side of the boat, and the distinct lack of energy lines you found in the city. The houses along the lake had all gone dark, save for any garden or outdoor lights. They join the stars, twinkling in the dark of night. 

He's laid out what looks like every one of his moms blankets at the back of the boat and sits back on pillows you recognize from his couch. He pats the blanket next to him, but you move to straddle his lap, instead. His hands immediately find your hips, but his lips don't meet yours as fast as you expected them to. They part, asks you, "Are you sure about this?" 

How can he ask that? When he's gone through all this trouble, already made you finish twice, and hasn't gotten a thing in return? How can he ask that, when it's so painfully obvious that you like him? That you've always wanted him; from the moment you knew how to want a boy, you wanted him. You think about telling him you've never been more sure of anything in your life. You also consider lying, tell him you just don't want to be a virgin anymore. But he knows you well, knows every tell you have. Not trusting your own voice, all you do is nod, lean in, and press your lips to his, hips rolling.

"Just say the word and we stop." He gives you an out, but the moment his tongue is in your mouth it doesn't cross your mind once. 

Getting the condom on was trickier than you thought it would be, at least in the dark, lit only by the moon and stars. You both laughed when you rolled it on the wrong way, rendering it useless. He's glad Matthew gave him three, and the two of you manage to figure it out. He confesses that it's his first time actually having sex, and you're surprised and elated that he's doing it with you. You tell him he's your first, too, and you see the relief wash over his face. 

You warn him not to leave any more marks on you, the existing ones will take long enough to fade. There wasn't much of the summer left, and it would be cooling down soon, but even you know how unusual it is for you to be covering up so much. He's got a dirty mouth, low groans of mine, mine, mine all across your skin. He kisses each healing hickey. You follow with soft moans of your own; yours, yours, I want to be yours. He fucks you slow and sweet and you feel like you might be. 

You lay with your head on his bicep, both coming down from the summit. The stars blink back at you, and with your leg hooked over his torso, you reach down and pet his cock back to life. He's eighteen, just fucked for the first time, and he doesn't know when he'll get the chance to again, so of course he's getting hard. You've moved from his side to between his legs; of course he's getting hard. It's you, of course he's hard. He runs his hand through his hair, adjusts so he has a better view of you, not that it matters because as soon as you take him into your mouth, his head falls back against the cushions. 

The warm summer air envelopes the both of you like a blanket. You're lying naked on the lake you both grew up on. He fills two condoms and you think he's finally spent, holding you like a teaspoon, until you feel his dick get heavier against your inner thigh. You make no move when he reaches down, runs the tip of him along your slit, sopping wet from multiple orgasms. He threatens to dip in with each pass; up, down, up, down. 

"Can I?" he asks, completely void of all rational thought. His breaths are hot in your ear and while you want nothing more than for him to fuck you raw, “I just want to be inside you...  No moving, and I won't cum… Honestly, I think I'm out." He makes you giggle, and you scoot your hips back, push him in yourself. You both sigh contentedly, and he hugs you close, snugs his head in the crook of your neck. 

.

You wake when the sun breaks the horizon. Thankfully the morning light wakes you up early, before any other boats hit the lake. You're definitely suspiciously parked, out in no mans land.

Quinn's arm is around your waist, and with each sway of the boat, he gets harder inside you. His grip around you tightens, and you start to squirm against him. "Fuck, baby, stop moving..." He groans, and it's his morning voice that sets you off. You turn your head, look over you shoulder, and you want him all over again, moving your hips in time with the rocking of the boat to get yourself off on him. He tries to keep you still, but can't even control the way his hips move desperately against yours. 

He doesn't pull out, as irresponsible as it is, he doesn't want to. He cums inside of you, and you like it so much you cum, too. Your hips slow to a stop, and your eyes widen when you feel the mess between your thighs. You scramble to sit up, unintentionally giving him a great view of his cum dripping out of you. As scared as you are, with the way he's looking at you, you finally feel like you're his.

Early that afternoon, you're in the passenger's seat of the Hughes' family car, while he drives to the nearest grocery store. Under the guise of helping pick up last minute items for the barbeque your parents were hosting tonight, you were running to the pharmacy to pick up Plan B. 

It's Quinn that walks up to the counter and finds you in the drinks aisle with a box in his hand. Your mom texted you a list, so you do end up filling a cart with Quinn. Neither of you are too chatty this morning, nerves both high hoping there were no consequences to recent actions. You're surprised to hear your name called down the aisle, and it’s the Tkachuk brothers that find you two. 

"Yo, fancy seeing you two here," Brady says, daps up Quinn and Matthew does the same. 

"Just pickin' stuff up for my mom for tonight," you tell them honestly, but you don't miss the way Matthew's eyes flicker between you and Quinn. Quinn is really good at being neutral. 

"Nice, so're we." Brady shows you his basket full of fruit and cheese. 

"You're coming over later, yeah?" You try to hold a normal conversation with Brady while Matthew and Quinn have a silent one of their own. Matthew's grin turns shit eating when he catches wind of the little blue box sitting in your cart. 

"Yeah, we'll see you then?" You're relieved when Brady takes it upon himself to walk away, taking Matthew with him. The older Tkachuk whistles low as he departs, patting Quinn on the shoulder as he goes. You whack the same arm. 

"You told Matthew?" You whisper furiously, pushing the cart down the aisle. 

"I never told him it was you," he cards a hand through his hair, looks down and looks at you as he does. An unfair, fail safe move; It should be illegal to take your breath the way he does. "Who do you think gave me the condoms?"

.

The barbeque at yours is probably the last time your families will all gather this summer, parents and kids all in one place that isn’t the country club. Your mom takes great pride in being a gracious host. You’re in the kitchen, helping her finish a couple platters. You look up out the window and see your dad handing Quinn a beer over the grill. Your parents didn’t mind giving you kids a drink or two, as long as it was low in percentage and no one was driving. He brings the bottle to his lips and finds you through the glass, sends you a big smile.

“Honey?” Your mom calls, “Are you coming?” She glances at Quinn out the window, tries to keep her smile to herself by bringing one dish to the table. You follow her out to the deck and set one down, too. The cropped tank top you’re wearing has a high neckline, keeping you safe from suspicion.

You’re surrounded by friends and family on perhaps the nicest evening on the lake. The pretty patio lights your mom had your dad set up switched on; the sun now far enough that the solar panels couldn’t read its rays. You hold a plate for Quinn to take things off the grill and set it down on the table once it fills up. There's a long table in the middle of your patio, you and your mom had set up together complete with a tablecloth and floral details. As soon as the meat starts to hit the table, the guests flock to a seat. 

Off the conversations of your parents, you realize that Quinn will be applying to colleges next year. Trevor is going to follow Brady to Boston, and Nico's going to try his hand at the hockey leagues back home in Switzerland. He's confident that he'll be able to catch a scout's eye from across the water. Chelsea got into UCLA, and Quinn wants to go to one with a good hockey program, after all, he has a big dream to achieve. He sits beside you, but hearing him talk about it makes the gap between you feel even bigger. You wonder if it shows on your face, because once glance at you and you feel his hand on your knee under the tablecloth. His touch is warm and assuring, but does nothing to settle your thoughts, only distracts you momentarily.

At the end of the night, you and Quinn sneak away, down the dock towards the lake. If anyone notices, they let the two of you go. You both did lots to prep and set up the night, the other kids can help bring things inside. You stop before the dock, on the grass; your usual spot. Knowing you're out of sight, sitting in the grass under the stars, he takes your hand in his. He's touched you all sorts of ways in the last three days, but you like this the most. He looks through you like glass, holds you like you'll shatter. "What's the matter, Angel? You seem bothered." 

"I shouldn't be," you confess, "I guess... I feel like you're leaving me behind?" 

Quinn hums, nodding slowly, thinking before he speaks. "It's harder to leave the lake this year, for me for sure." It's hard for me to leave you. 

"I just mean, when you go to college and all..." Where does this leave us?

"I see." His thumb strokes the knuckles of your hand. "I..."  like you but can't be in a relationship right now. He starts but doesn't finish, knows it's the wrong thing to say, so he tries to think of the right one. There are a lot of things in the way right now. He knows he should just be honest, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't scared out of his mind to say what he actually wants to say. "I'll miss you," he says, "I miss you every time, actually... remember when I said Luke texted you on my phone?"

It feels like ages ago, but you'd never forget the way your heart skipped in art class in the eighth grade. But you're petty, always have been, "The time you left me on read?" 

"Did I?" he chuckles under your glare, scratches the back of his neck bashfully. "I'm sorry, Angel," his arm comes around you, hugs you to him, "Well, it was me. I wanted to talk to you, just didn't want to talk about Jack and Luke and... I didn't know how to get any further with you. Can I text you?" 

Your heart is like a stone skipping over water, your breaths shallow. "Okay..."

"Just okay?" he teases, leans down and brushes his nose to your cheek. 

"Okay," you playfully shove him, "I'd like that." If you were being honest with yourself, you didn't want to be in a long distance relationship during your senior year. Whatever it is that you have with Quinn would have to remain at the lake for the time being. And you would have to be okay with that.

.

The week passes by so quickly. It's Friday and you're sad, because all your friends are leaving, one by one. 

Q ♡ : Good morning, beautiful. 

Quinn texts incite both joy and anger in you. He's so painfully boyfriend material, and each morning he reminds you. 

Morning 

Q ♡ : Can you meet me at our spot? 

Our spot. You have to remind yourself it's not happening. He's not going to get down on one knee, he's not going to ask you to be his girlfriend, he's not going to do anything of the sort. He's going to pack up his parents' car in a few hours and drive off to the airport and fly home and apply to a college far away and you won't see or hear from him until next summer. 

Q ♡ : I want to see you before I go

I'll be there in 5? 

Quinn's already there when you get to the grassy area just off your deck steps. Our spot. He's holding something covered in plastic wrap in his hand, with a little shovel at his feet. He sees you. 

"What do you have there?" 

"Something for future you," he hands it to you, lets you hold it in your hands. It's a box, wound tightly with plastic wrap. 

"Future me?" 

"Yup." He's pretty excited about whatever's inside, beaming as you turn it every which way. "I'm gonna bury it right here, at our spot. Next summer, you get to dig it up." 

"What's stopping me from opening it right now?" 

"Well, for one, a shit ton of plastic wrap. Second of all, me," he swipes it from you, and starts to dig a relatively deep hole in the ground. You crouch down, watching him work with his hands that you like so much, "and third, you won't." He drops the box in and you help him fill the hole. Your dirt covered hand brushes his, and he stops to smile at you. 

"Do I have dirt on my face or something?" 

"No, not yet." Before you can ask, he brings a hand to your face, and pulls you in. You fear it's the last kiss you'll ever share; a lot can change in a year. It's enough for you to set aside the thought of dirt on your face and kiss him back. His kiss is slow and lingering, and he barely pulls away when he does, resting his forehead against yours. 

.

.

.

You find out Quinn got accepted into the kinesiology program at the University of Michigan, not through him but through Instagram. You text him congratulations and he tells you it's because they had the nicest rink. He's so close to the lake, you joke about meeting him there during his reading break. He leaves you on read and you wish you never said anything. 

You complain to Julie, because she always knows when something is wrong. You’re in her bedroom, laying across the foot of her bed while she sits on her vanity chair. You have to tell her everything, she’s your best friend. Maybe not everything. Maybe you don’t mention that you fucked on the boat that she rides every summer. 

“Girl, you gotta get your mind off him.” She’s sorting her makeup brushes, talking to you through the mirror. “He texts you just to ghost you and that’s not fair! He doesn’t get to have you just when it’s convenient for him.”

She’s right, so you let her take you to the basketball team’s party that weekend. You play beer pong with Jason Robertson, for old times sake, and Julie captures it on her Instagram story. There’s no bad blood between you anymore, and the two of you dominate the table that night. 

Quinn texts you for the first time in three weeks and you leave him on read. 

Q ♡ : Angel, I’m missing you extra

Q ♡ : Are you mad at me? 

.

.

.

Quinn is nineteen when he gets drafted for the Vancouver Canucks. He’s surrounded by family and he’s got 91 notifications and he can’t help but notice that not one of them is from you. 

.

You’re eighteen the first summer you spend without Quinn. He’s busy in Vancouver, getting to know the city and his new teammates. 

Julie takes it upon herself to make it the best summer ever. She pulls you from the depths of your own despair, and gets you back on your feet. Tells you the world doesn’t revolve around Quinn Hughes, and neither should yours. As much as she likes Quinn, she hates the way he has you moping around. 

Our spot, he called it. You don’t find yourself there once that summer. 

.

.

.

Quinn is twenty the next time you see him. He’s got the makings of a beard, he fills out his tshirts, and he looks as stoic and haggard as ever. He calls to you from his porch. 

“Hey, Sunshine.” You didn’t think his voice could get any deeper. It’s hoarse from being used more than he’s used to. You sit up from where you lay across a patio chair, rush embarrassingly quickly to where you can see him through the trees.

“Quinn?” You hate the way you feel; your heart betrays every thought in your mind. 

“I missed you,” he leans against the bannister, “Come over later tonight?” 

His invitation is nothing like you think it is. You and Julie descend the steps of the Hughes’ basement to a room full of faces, both familiar and not. Quinn comes to greet you while Julie makes her way to Jack, who’s surrounded by girls. 

“How’ve you been?” He doesn’t hug you like Luke does. He keeps his distance, one hand on a red solo cup and the other in his pocket. “Did you bring Jason?”

“I didn’t. What’s with the small talk?” You mutter, crossing your arms over your chest, attempt to close yourself off to him.

He leans down ever so slightly, still doesn’t touch you once, “Nothin’ small about it,” he says, low in your ear. His confidence is new to you, and while your mind is still figuring out if you like it, there are butterflies in your stomach that certainly do. A lot has changed over the years. He pulls away, “Let me introduce you.” 

You find out he’s only invited two guys from his college team. It’s Nico and Trevor that brought all the ladies, and are grumbling about it when they’re all interested in Jack. You giggle when they tell you, because there’s nothing that makes you laugh quite like Nico not getting what he wants. Quinn smiles softly at the familiar sound, and offers to get you something to drink. He hands you a watermelon vodka sprite and you wonder if he’s doing it on purpose. Running his hands through his hair, the backwards baseball cap, each lick of his lips. 

The girls that don’t get Jack’s attention quickly decide that they’d gladly take any of the Hughes. You have the right mind to tell these college girls that Luke’s only seventeen, until you remind yourself that you have no ground to stand on. You were seventeen once, too. 

You were seventeen when Quinn first put his hands on you, you’re reminded of it when is hand finds your hip. You stare at him over the rim of your cup as he talks to the friends he introduced you to. His arm around you is loose, and while you want nothing more than to take a step closer, you don’t. 

A girl comes up and asks him to be her beer pong partner, points behind her where Trevor and Mila are setting up the table. He glances at you with a look you’ve never seen on him before, and excuses himself to follow after her. Now your hip is cold and it has nothing to do with how short your crop top is. 

You find Chelsea and Julie at the other end of the couch.

“You two are peas in a pod, you know that?” You and Julie are seemingly in the same boat, and Chelsea is all but amused.

“What are you jealous about?” Julie snaps at you, “You’ve had him in your pocket for the last how many years?” You rub your face with your hands, because that was then. Right now, he's playing beer pong with a girl you fear he finds much prettier than you.

“You know he’s only doing this because he saw you playing pong with your ex on Julie’s story, right?” Chelsea says. 

“Huh?” Julie drawls, words extended by alcohol, “That was like, months ago.” 

“You’ll probably remember this months later, too,” Chelsea’s eyes flicker to Jack, talking with a girl seated in his lap. Julie rubs her eyes, too.

“Whatever, I am so done with Jack Hughes.” You watch her storm off towards the pool table, and from where you sit, you see that Jack notices her bad mood, too. You pray that he gets up and follows her, and he does. You always want what you can’t have, and you hope Julie hasn’t closed her heart off to Jack just yet. 

“So, he’s doing all this just to make me jealous?” You ask Chelsea, eyes on the brown haired boy tossing ping pong balls across a table. 

“Mhm, fight fire with fire no?” she follows your line of sight, “Were you not doing the same when you decided to play with Jason?”

You don’t say anything because there’s nothing more to say. She’s absolutely right that you had Quinn in your head and your heart, however bitterly at the time. Your eyes widen, and you scramble to your feet. “I gotta go,” you rush out the side exit before Chelsea can respond. She doesn’t miss the way Quinn looks at his phone and leaves mid game, following after you only five minutes later. She’s a poet and hopeless romantic; she‘ll notice every glance and touch. Chelsea smiles softly to herself and takes Quinn’s place against Mila and Trevor. 

Meet me at our spot. 

“You never dug it up,” he’s breathing heavily when he gets there, as if he ran to you, “I thought you forgot.”

“I did, and I didn’t,” you say, defences up again. “Why didn’t you text me?” 

“You’re the one who stopped texting me,” he responds fast, looking at you incredulously, then question for question, punch for punch, “Why didn’t you dig it up?” 

“I didn’t want to,” your voice is cold, freezes over what you really want to say. I didn't want to do it alone. 

The look on Quinn’s face almost made you take it all back. He takes a step back from you, like you struck him. “Well, it’ll be here when you want it,” his tone doesn’t match yours. It’s soft and sad and he’s already walking away. 

The taste of watermelon is bitter on your tongue as you walk home alone. 

Julie stumbles home around half past one and passes out quickly. You’ve been lying in bed for hours trying to sleep, but your mind just keeps racing. Are they sleeping over at the Hughes? All those pretty girls? 

You check you phone for the time, see a text from Quinn from an hour ago.

Q ♡ : I’m sorry

Q ♡ : Let’s dig it up together

He could always see right through you. 

.

.

.

It’s four in the morning when you meet Quinn at your spot. He’s got a shovel in hand, the same one he used to bury it. This time, he hugs you when he sees you and you hug him tightly back, breathing him in. “I’m sorry, Angel,” he speaks into the top of your head, “I shouldn’t have held anything against you…” 

“I’m sorry, too,” you look up at him, keep him close, “I should’ve texted you back those times. I should’ve called.” 

“You were busy,” he shook his head, “I understand.” 

“I’ll never be too busy for you,” you tell him earnestly, and his gaze visibly softens, and the two of you get to digging. Quinn dusts the box off and begins unravelling all the plastic. Dawn breaks the night sky when he hands you the small box. You shake it to your ear, but don’t hear anything. He’s avoiding eye contact with you now, sits down in the grass and leans back on his hands. “Go on, open it.”

A year late too late, you open up the box to find a small, folded piece of paper. 

Thank you for seeing me when no one else does. When I’m with you, I lack nothing. You mean everything to me. I’ll never be the loudest guy in the room, but if you let me, I’ll never shut up about how much I love you. 

“Don’t laugh, I literally had Chelsea proof-read it.” He’s forcing himself to watch your reaction, turns his face when you look at him. He falls back in the grass, doesn’t expect you to throw yourself at him the way you do. Your arms around his neck, you kiss him with all your heart. 

“Nico is gonna lose his mind,” you giggle, pull away a couple millimetres, “Because I really have loved you all this time.” 

He sits up, brings you with him, and kisses you as the sun starts to rise. “God knows, I’ve loved you for so long.” 

.

You’re nineteen the summer you’re head over heels for Quinn. You tell your parents and they’re not surprised in the slightest. Your friends all claim to have known for years. Nico tries to take credit for setting you guys up. You sneak off to watch the sunset with Quinn all the time. He takes you on late night drives and even tours you through his old college campus. You’re his just as much as he is yours. 

Quinn’s debuted in the big leagues, and he’s on track for the Calder Award. You care a lot more about hockey, now that your boyfriend plays professionally. You watch all his games no matter where you are, and he always makes sure to see you when he’s playing in your city. 

Long distance is hard, but the two of you make it work. It’s a lot of long, late calls, post office problems, and good morning and good night texts, but not a day goes by that Quinn doesn’t make you feel loved. 

When he’s with you, he can finally drop his shoulders, feel the connective tissue between his joints just release. He’ll never know rest like the relaxation he feels when he’s with you. And while his life is now in the city of Vancouver, his heart remains on a lake in Michigan. He’ll return to it, year after year, because that’s where he knows you’ll be.

.

.

.

You’re twenty-two when he asks you to move in with him. You’re at the driving range, hitting a little white ball with all your might.

“I’m in my second year at NYU,” you shake your head, though you can’t help daydreaming of the idea of waking up next to him every day. He leans against the pillar, dropping you golf balls in between swings. You push it around on the green, centring it on the patch of turf where you like it.

“UBC has a good program you can transfer into. With your transcript, there’s no way you don’t get in,” he presses on, “And… I’m gonna be captain next year… please, baby, I need you.”

He looks at you with his stupid puppy dog eyes, runs his hand through his hair. That’s all it takes for you to cave. “Fine, only if I make the transfer. Don’t get your hopes up.” 

You swing and it flies close to the sun.

.

.

.

Quinn is twenty-three when his home becomes yours. His lack of things is compensated by your abundance of personal touches. Cute couch cushions and bedsheets, stuffed animals, and house plants.

On a good day, on a bad day, on days that were just plain long. He comes home and melts in your arms every time. What a privilege it is to be loved by you. 

He no longer counts the days till summer.

#dior’s recs #SO IN LOVE #i love lake house fics #ESPECIALLY LAKE HOUSE QUINN #and childhood friends to lovers is one of the best tropes hands down

[diorsluv]

don’t talk to me i’m bawling my eyes out. THEY HAD ONE YEAR TOGETHER. ONE YEAR. god it’s like luca and adam all over again

#dior yaps #i’m in so much pain #and ty hugging dyl when they got eliminated #all he wanted to do was play with dyl #and now he’s leaving

[diorsluv]

casual , part 5

“ i thought you thought of me better ”

series m. list previous chapter next chapter

( socialmedia!au )

vivianliu

liked by yourusername, jackhughes, and 72,110 others

vivianliu she was better off without you 😘

tagged: yourusername

view all comments

username44 ethan slander goes crazy

yourusername WE LOOK SO HOT 🤭🤭

→ vivianliu ALL YOU BABE ITS ALL YOU

yourusername also idk about that caption..

→ vivianliu oh girl noooo

→ yourusername 😔

→ vivianliu HE CAN’T BE STRAIGHT UP WITH U BABE he’s always beating around the bush

→ edwards.73 that’s subjective

→ vivianliu “tHAtS sUbJEctiVe” stfu

→ yourusername VIVI STOP BE NICE

→ markestapa it is pretty subjective

→ mackie.samo i think the bush is just a decorative piece to further brighten up the room

→ dylanduke25 he is not a bush beater ❌

username27 MARRY ME PLEASE

username10 IDK WHO I WANT MORE

→ username67 BOAF!!!!

→ username78 BOAF?

→ username96 BOAFFFF.

colecaufield i second that

→ lhughes_06 i third that

→ _quinnhughes i fourth that

→ trevorzegras i fifth that

→ rutgermcgroarty i sixth that

→ mackie.samo i seventh that

→ jackhughes i eighth that

→ _alexturcotte i ninth that

→ markestapa i tenth that

→ luca.fantilli i eleventh that

→ dylanduke25 i twelfth that

→ adamfantilli i thirteenth that

→ yourusername i disagree

→ edwards.73 guys you’re supposed to be on my side??????

→ luca.fantilli we just wanted to fit in 💔

username72 so ethan and rosie confirmed????

→ vivianliu 🤐

→ username99 pretty much

rutgermcgroarty yeah bc she already had me 🙄

→ vivianliu she had me first

→ yourusername LADIESSSSS stop fighting there’s enough to go around 😈😈

→ edwards.73 but i’m better though

→ rutgermcgroarty hell no you’re not edwards.73

lhughes_06 i hope she knows plan b is called plan b for a reason

→ vivianliu LMAOOO

→ yourusername bro WHAT????

username14 I CAN DO BETTER THAN ETHAN I PROMISEEE

username49 yall r so hot

edwards.73 didn’t sound that way last night

→ vivianliu is sex all you think about with her 😐

→ edwards.73 no????

→ yourusername damn

→ edwards.73 I SAID IT’S NOT

→ lhughes_06 i swear to god ethan i’m going to beat your ass

_alexturcotte she’s too pretty for him

→ vivianliu RETWEET RETWEET

→ edwards.73 ????

trevorzegras i could treat her better fr

→ vivianliu ion know about that one..

username95 I THOUGHT THEY ALL LIKED ETHAN??? 😭

mackie.samo stop dogging on my boy

→ vivianliu “your boy” is gonna get my wife all hurt and shit

→ dylanduke25 TRUST IN HIM DUDE

→ vivianliu hell no

username12 please she’s so happy thooo

username80 i mean as long as he doesn’t break her heart idc fr 🤷‍♀️

_quinnhughes that’s what i’ve been saying but she won’t listen to me 😒

→ vivianliu she’s delusional

→ yourusername NO IM NOTTT

→ _quinnhughes yes you are stop lying to yourself

luca.fantilli who said he needed her??

→ vivianliu everyone

→ yourusername ☹️

→ edwards.73 i did

→ luca.fantilli oh

→ markestapa OH????

→ mackie.samo look at our eddy he’s so confident

→ edwards.73 i am after last night mackie.samo

→ jackhughes oh god please never say that again

dylanduke25 i can smell the pizza from the other room and you won’t share shit 😒

→ vivianliu she bought it to eat with the boy that just stood her up so no we aren’t gonna share

→ yourusername ‼️‼️

→ colecaufield why did she buy the food and not him 😭😭

→ vivianliu THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING colecaufield

→ lhughes_06 HE DID WHAT????

→ _quinnhughes he let her pay for the food then stood her up. that’s great, that’s real fucking great.

→ jackhughes i’m gonna fight him

→ yourusername GUYS ITS FINE

jackhughes our dad’s gonna be livid when he finds out what that asshole did to her

→ vivianliu AS HE SHOULD

→ yourusername oh my god it’s not that big of a deal it doesn’t even matter

→ lhughes_06 ???? OF COURSE IT MATTERS

→ _quinnhughes don’t undermine ts it’s not gonna help you rosie

edwards.73

liked by yourusername, rutgermcgroarty, and 99,312 others

edwards.73 then she said you make me happier than ever

view all comments

username77 is this him clapping back????

username46 there’s no way he and vivian are beefing rn

markestapa go bag your girl 🙏🙏

→ edwards.73 bagging my girl 🫡

→ yourusername “my girl” ?

→ mackie.samo LMAOOO

→ dylanduke25 this is definitely going in the gc

→ luca.fantilli ethan it’s over for u

vivianliu no don’t be pulling this shit

username80 is it just me who’s getting the tiiiiiniest ick

→ username51 i am too babe dw

jackhughes uh huh..

_quinnhughes ok i don’t know bout all that

username31 kissing in the rain oh my god i’m melting

username27 rosie’s so lucky

→ username12 ethan’s the lucky one here 🙄

lhughes_06 what if i bashed your face in

→ edwards.73 but why

→ lhughes_06 i told you and everyone else NOT to touch my sister and you quite literally did the complete opposite

→ edwards.73 hey i didn’t even pay attention to her at first man

→ lhughes_06 😒

username54 i want a relationship like theirs so badly

→ yourusername no babe find yourself a healthy relationship 🫶

→ username33 WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN

→ username81 EXPLAIN?? yourusername

→ username20 UMM WHAT?

yourusername i don’t remember that one

→ edwards.73 i got the receipts baby don’t fight it

→ yourusername 😳

yourusername also wow she’s pretty

→ edwards.73 mhm she’s my gorgeous girl

→ yourusername oh is that her name?

→ edwards.73 yea got her saved as mine ❤️ in my contacts it’s nbd

username10 the candlelit dinner ☹️

colecaufield as much as it pains me to say it you guys look cute together

liked by edwards.73

_alexturcotte maybe i was wrong about you two and as long as you keep making her happy idc

→ edwards.73 i’ll keep her happy for the rest of our lives 🫡🫡

→ yourusername wow that’s a pretty long time!

trevorzegras oh ethan you crack me up

→ edwards.73 this one was a knee slapper wasn’t it

→ trevorzegras got me laughing and shit

→ yourusername oh so this post was a joke 😐

→ edwards.73 NO IT WASN’T I SWEAR ON MY LIFE yourusername

rutgermcgroarty why do i feel sick to my stomach rn

→ edwards.73 i think it’s called jealousy lil bro

→ rutgermcgroarty no i think it’s because you aren’t treating her right buddy

username55 even rut doesn’t like the relationship 😭😭

→ username79 99% positive he secretly likes her

→ username23 THATS WHAT IM SAYING

mackie.samo did you hard-ish soft launch simply because you were being scrutinized 😭

→ edwards.73 perhaps i did and what about it??

→ mackie.samo ok im usually on your side but bro..

username46 what happened to the “no labels”

username25 is this not lowkey toxic 💀💀

username98 whew lord save my girl please

adamfantilli you guys are so gross and icky

→ edwards.73 keep hating 🤬🤬

→ vivianliu i wholeheartedly agree

→ lhughes_06 that’s what i’ve been saying but no one listens 🙄

→ jackhughes CORRECT

username47 why are we all divided over this i thought we liked the relationship???

→ username53 but they’re kinda toxic af 😭

username9 this shakes me to my core

luca.fantilli is that the after sex pic

→ edwards.73 🤫

→ dylanduke25 oh god ew

→ colecaufield that did not have to be a question

username22 this is so cute it hurts

username28 SO ADORABLEEE

username91 new fav couple alert

dylanduke25 aw that’s cute

→ edwards.73 good to know ur not a hater

→ mackie.samo DUDE i was just stating facts

→ edwards.73 uh huh we’re kicking u out the gc

→ mackie.samo BROOOO

next chapter notes ) hey loves guess who didn’t proofread!!! I FEEL LIKE THIS IS LESS AND LESS ENTERTAINING IDKKK

tags: @dancerbailey3 @hughesfein @loveforaugust@alwaysclassyeagle@love4ldr@inhoodmood@bunting58@crazycat-ladys-blog@smoooore@bunbunbl0gs

#ethan edwards x y/n #ethan edwards x reader #ethan edwards fanfic #ethan edwards fic #quinn hughes #jack hughes #trevor zegras #alex turcotte #cole caufield #luke hughes #dylan duke #mark estapa #mackie samoskevich #adam fantilli #luca fantilli #rutger mcgroarty #ethan edwards

[diorsluv]

infrunami (lh⁴³)

❝ in which you’ve always been in love with your childhood best friend, but he would always be the right person at the wrong time ❞

wc: 5.8k

warnings: god there’s so much angst, reader is kinda inconsistent, mentions of blood/injury, mutual pining, idiots in love, running away from “rejection”, reader is touchy with jack and besties with quinn, no use of y/n, if i missed any lmk!!

notes ) when i tell you this took me WEEKS and WEEKS just to compile a simple 5k fic.. i think it’s kinda obvious where i stopped and started back up but i tried to blend it in as best i could!! this will be a two parter simply because i was draining myself trying to drag it on, so stay tuned (might take a while)! AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST thank you to my wonderful, amazing, supportive wife @dior-roses for beta reading this (i was terrified)

As a kid, you always moved wherever the Hughes moved—it was something about the bond between your fathers that couldn’t keep your families apart for more than a week. Regardless of how many times you moved, you never felt alone. You and Luke were in the same grade, and Quinn and Jack were always looking out for you two, so isolation was never a concern for you.

Although you were inseparable with Luke, Quinn had always been your best friend. The four-year age difference between the two of you was almost invisible, and throughout your youth, you would always find yourself in his room, staring at the ceiling as you talked about everything. 

You would tell him about your silly school girl crushes, and he would ramble to you about hockey and all the petty drama that happened around him. In fact, he was the reason you learned hockey in the first place. Your father could never keep your attention on the sport for over five minutes, but the way Quinn talked about it so lovingly was what motivated you to step on the ice. 

Your love for hockey spurred your relationship with not only Quinn, but also Luke and Jack, to grow closer than ever. Every day in school, you and Luke would gush about the games you had watched the night prior, and every day after school, all four of you would head off to practice for your respective club teams. If you weren’t already inseparable from the way your families were bound together by an invisible rope, then you were forever connected through hockey. 

You quit after a few years to pursue more academic routes, but the sport never left your spirit. There were many occasions where the boys would refuse to play if you weren’t there, simply because your presence was the only thing to motivate them to get on the ice, especially if they were having a bad week.

Somehow, though, along the way, you caught feelings. Feelings that were far too heavy to have just surfaced from the depths of your heart. No, what you felt for Luke seemed to have always been creeping just between the line of what was certain and what was unknown. There was no other explanation as to why you couldn’t handle being in the same room as him without being on the verge of exploding. There was no other reason as to why you could spend months on end with either of his brothers but couldn’t last one minute sitting beside him. 

As soon as you came to that revelation, you were done for. It was over. You would rather die than acknowledge the feelings you caught for the boy that had been by your side since you were born. Because of that, you spent all your time with your best friend and his younger brother, and both your families sensed the shift as soon as it happened.

Especially Luke.

Oh, the poor boy, his heart dropped into his stomach when he realized you were avoiding him. You held your breath every time he stepped into the same room as you, let alone when he tried to stand remotely close to you. You diverted your attention away from him as much as you could, and the boy you once knew as your other half now seemed to be universes away. 

It was your doing, but in a way, it was his. How dare he make you fall for him? It wasn’t fair. Not to you, and definitely not to him. It wasn’t fair how he could make you fold in seconds with the way he looked at you from the other side of the room but simultaneously have a girl wrapped around his arm trying to take all his attention away from you. He was the only boy on your mind, but he always managed to push you to the darkest parts of his brain, putting you on hold when the more important girls were right in front of him. 

If only you knew. 

Quinn bounded down the stairs of your lake house, which was conveniently right next to the Hughes’, with an old framed photo in his hand. “Hah! I was right!” His exclamations took your attention away from the pasta you were cooking as you now turned to his self-righteous figure. “You would never let go of that stupid plushie.”

The two of you were arguing over what (and who) you were and were not inseparable with just prior to his search for the picture, and he claimed there were multiple photos of you hugging your favorite Elmo plushie. There was a mutual agreement that Luke was one of the things—or rather, people—you couldn’t fathom to be away from, but neither you nor Quinn had to verbally confirm it. There was no need. 

And, to be completely honest, Quinn had barely spoken about his youngest brother throughout the time you’d been spending at the lake houses. A few years back, you had reluctantly told him how you felt about Luke, and ever since then, he’d made it his mission to make you feel the most comfortable you could possibly be whilst sharing a connected lake house with the boy you’ve loved since you were children. The eldest saw the way you tensed up when you recognized his brother’s footsteps creaking down the stairs when it came time to eat breakfast, and he sure as hell saw the way your eyes blew wide whenever you accidentally made contact with him. 

It scared you how much Quinn seemed to notice about you, especially since he and his brothers were all busy with their demanding careers that left little to no time to be tending to some childhood friend who was stuck with a crush on the most recently debuted boy. Yes, he was still your best friend (that much hadn’t changed since your childhood), but all you could do was FaceTime each other, and even then, it was difficult to find time. It was the same with Jack; sometimes, they would be too tired for practice; other times, they would be exhausted from a home game and possibly frustrated had they lost; and most of the time, they weren’t even home, so the time difference, albeit miniscule, was still difficult to navigate considering you were a busy person too. 

That meant that you met up as much as you could and you stuck by each other’s side until you were forced apart by the demands of being a professional hockey player. All that time together when you were younger meant you struggled to be without each other as you got older—maybe your parents should’ve realized that, but then again, it was probably their intention. 

“Okay, I did let go of it. Multiple times, actually,” you refuted with a small frown, the expression on your face practically meaningless as your best friend laughed. It only egged him on further, evoking a complaint from your lips. “Quinn! It’s not funny!” 

“I mean, it kinda is.” He struggled to stifle his laughter as he rounded the kitchen island to stand beside you. Your hand mindlessly dragged the wooden spoon through the soft noodles floating around in the boiling hot water, and he wondered how your skin wasn’t burning. Gently removing your hand from the utensil and replacing it with his own, the eldest Hughes boy continued his teasing once he looked at your still-upset face. “You’re such a kid sometimes, you know that?”

Your eyes practically rolled into the back of your head in annoyance. Quinn always said that to you. Always. He never failed to address you as ‘kid,’ and no matter what you did, he always managed to bring it back to how you ‘were such a kid.’ You huffed, “You’re so fucking annoying, Quinny. I’m gonna go piss off Jack. Keep cooking, and if you burn the house down, you’re paying for all of it.” 

“You’re forgetting I’m a millionaire.” His laughter filled your ears once again, and your only response was the finger you lifted at him over your shoulder.

After walking out of the kitchen of your own lake house, you took a few strides over to the sliding doors that led to the connected portion of your two homes. Your father and Jim had built it together, way back when all four of you were far too young to understand what normal lake houses were supposed to look like. It was essentially a screened-in sunroom overlooking the absolute beauty of a lake out front. They managed to hook up a large, flat-screen television on the wall, throwing a couple bean bag chairs and a rug into the room. The rest of the furnishing was left completely up to you and the Hughes brothers, so the furniture would change up every few visits. 

Oftentimes, you would find Luke there, just sitting against the one wall that had a bit of a bump-out. He liked the way it felt against his back, like it actually supported him compared to the fluffy chairs that laid in the middle of the room. Whether he be on his phone, playing video games, or reading a book that was required for summer class, he would always be in the sunroom. The floor directly before the bump-out was much more worn compared to the rest of the room, the discolored wood showing just how often the youngest Hughes would find himself in the confines of the area.

There were many times when Luke would flee to the sunroom in his times of need, wanting to be alone with his thoughts. If anyone were to try to enter the room and speak to him, he wouldn’t respond. He would only ever talk to you. You were the one and only person to talk him out of his thoughts, the only one who could convince him to leave the room. Those nights were comprised of him refusing to leave your bed and whining if you got up in the middle of the night. 

You missed it. 

But you weren’t kids anymore. And, again, it was your fault you weren’t close anymore. You deliberately distanced yourself from him. 

After pulling yourself away from your own thoughts, you tugged the Hughes’ sliding door open, the smell of freshly grilled shrimp welcoming you into the cozy house.

“Hey, sweetie,” Ellen’s soothing voice called out to you, smiling at you from her place at the kitchen sink. “How’s the pasta going?” The sound of the running water could barely be heard over the hockey game playing on the television, your father entertaining Jim and his youngest son with light chirps towards the losing team. 

You could feel Luke’s eyes set on you. Shrugging, you replied, “I told Quinny to take over and not burn the house down.” 

This was a regular occurrence whenever you came back to the lake for the break. You, your mother and Ellen would split up the food duties so that there was a lot of food but didn’t take too much time to cook everything. Quinn and Jack would help out a bit, but they would only ever take on the physical tasks. Luke used to help out when you were children, but ever since the distance you wedged between the two of you, he stopped helping out as much. 

You looked around for Jack, trying your hardest to avoid Luke’s gaze in your search for his older brother. Ellen had now returned to her cooking, and the fathers were too invested in their conversation for you to intervene. Your eyes were darting everywhere but at your ex-best friend, and as soon as you made eye contact, you couldn’t look away.

It was too difficult.

It was so stupid.

It wasn’t fair. 

His hazel eyes were too pretty. The way he looked at you made it hard to deny him the satisfaction of giving him attention. He looked at you like you hung the stars and the moon, but you couldn’t see that. You were blinded by your abundance of self-deprecating thoughts to notice. 

“Hey,” he mumbled, voice being drowned out due to the other activities occurring throughout the house. You mouthed the same word back, fighting the urge to walk over to him and apologize for avoiding him, apologize for distancing yourself from the one person you know you could never live without. If you allowed yourself to break, you would never forgive yourself. He doesn’t like you back, you told yourself. You can’t embarrass yourself.

So, instead of going with your heart, you went with your brain and made your way upstairs. If Jack wasn’t downstairs, then he had to have been upstairs doing God knows what. 

“Jack?” You called out, running your hand along the railing of the staircase once you neared the top. 

“In here!” His muffled voice came through the door to his bedroom, and you’ve seen him in enough compromising positions to the point where you couldn’t even be bothered to pretend to be cautious. Once you opened the door, you were met with four gazes planted straight on you. You suddenly felt exposed despite your thick pajamas and only felt some sort of reassurance when you found Jack’s eyes. “Look who finally came up here!”

All four boys sat on Jack’s bed with controllers in their hands, the game on the TV now paused as their attention focused solely on you. You knew Trevor, Alex, and Cole, but you hadn’t seen them in so long that it felt awkward. “Oh, uh, hey. Quinn’s probably gonna burn my house down and I didn’t wanna be down there with Lukey, so,” you trailed off, pursing your lips. 

“You’re still on that?” Alex questioned with furrowed eyebrows, placing the controller in his lap. You cocked your head to the side, not quite understanding what the boy was talking about. He continued, “I thought you got over him, like, months ago.”

Right. You had forgotten all about your accidental drunk confession the last time Jack’s friends were over. Last summer, your revelation was fresh on your mind, and you and Luke were still as inseparable as ever. His friends had also visited the lake house at the same time everyone else was staying over, so it made for a ton of chaos and little to no privacy. 

Luke and his friends had left the house to go out, and for the first time, you stayed behind. Trevor and Cole were sitting at the fire pit outside, beers in their hands as they discussed the upcoming camps they were to attend. You were on your fifth drink, and although Jack was keeping an eye on you, he hadn’t noticed how you had accidentally walked into the bathroom while Alex was in the process of throwing up. 

In the midst of your tipsy daze and the fact that it just so happened to be Luke’s bathroom, you called out for him. “Luke? Is that you? You know I’m always telling you not to drink that much, stupid.” You used your foot to shut the door behind you as you placed your drink onto the counter. 

Alex, confused but sobering up, looked up at you with puffy eyes. Only then did he notice how you were much more than tipsy. 

Your gaze was blurry and your words were beginning to slur, “If I didn’t like you so much, maybe I would be more mad at you. I don’t know why I like you, anyway. You’re always being so stupid, ‘cause you can’t see that all those girls are only ever using you for your brother or your body. They’re so mean. And I’m your best friend, not them! You always ditch me when you find another girl, and then they say shit about me behind my back. I don’t like them. What do you even see in them? God, what do I even see in you?

“My stomach hurts. I think I’m thinking about this too much. Or maybe I’m thinking about you too much. I hate you so much, Lukey, but I can’t ever hate you. You’re too pretty. This is so unfair and my head is pounding. Oh, God, I’m gonna throw up. Move over.” After your little monologue, which was definitely not directed towards the person on the receiving end, you were quick to fall to the ground beside the toilet and dip your head past the ceramic seat. 

Alex brought his right hand up to flush the toilet so you didn’t accidentally stuff your face in a load of his vomit, using his other hand to rub soothing circles on your back. “‘m not Luke, but you’re safe with me.” He continued his motions throughout the five-minute duration of your illness, bringing his hand up to massage your head once you were sure you were done.

Your head was pounding and your ears began to ring, but you were visibly more sober compared to how you were a few minutes ago. Barely able to lift your head, you thanked your friend with a weak smile.

He only returned your expression and brought you up to your feet, leading you out of the restroom and towards Jack’s room. It obviously wasn’t the best option to bring you to Luke’s room, albeit being the default room after a long night, so his older brother’s bedroom would have to do. 

Alex laid you down onto the mattress and tucked you in, lightly patting your cheek as you thanked him once more. He only chuckled and squeezed your hand reassuringly, “Anytime.”

And then you were left alone in the confines of Jack’s room.

You chuckled awkwardly at the memory, shaking your head in response. “Nope. Still on it.” Your hands brought themselves up to your thighs, rubbing your palms against your thick pants in an attempt to wipe away the tension in the room.

Trevor and Cole were aware of your feelings as well; you were sure everyone in the house knew. They only shot you sympathetic smiles, their priorities set on finishing the NHL 23 game plastered all over the screen. 

“I’m sure you’ll get over it.”

“We believe in you.”

Their words, no offense, meant nothing to you. They were great people to hang around, but they weren’t the best guys to turn to when you were in a time of need, especially since you weren’t very close to them. They had their own issues that didn’t concern you, and your issues were ever so far from their minds.

After a few beats of silence, the mood of the room began to slowly eat away at you. If you were to open your mouth and bite down, you might as well have taken a chunk out of the thick tension lingering in the room. It was even more awkward knowing that Luke was much closer to them compared to you, and you knew they would let things slip eventually. 

Not that he didn’t already know, though.

The four boys exchanged glances with one another, shrugging in unison before resuming their gameplay. You took it as your cue to stay, seeing as they didn’t seem bothered by your presence, and you were much more comfortable in Jack’s room than you were downstairs. 

Allowing yourself to flop onto the boy’s soft mattress, you fished your phone out from the pocket of your pajama pants, finding solace in the way the friends laughed with each other. You remained like that for about twenty minutes before Jack beckoned you over to the edge of his bed, where he was sitting, to ask you for your opinion on something.

After dishing him your thoughts—which barely seemed to help him—you stayed snug at the foot of the bed, extending your legs out so that they lay atop his. It was one of your more typical positions when spending time with Jack whilst he was playing video games. Whether it be with his friends or with his brothers, you always found yourself comfortably overlapping your limbs with him, and today was no exception. 

You both shuffled around a bit until you found a comfortable position. You sat with your legs resting on his thighs and your head laying on his shoulder; he sat with his forearms resting on your left leg. The others paid no mind to your odd positioning, their minds too preoccupied with the competitiveness flooding through the screen. 

So you stayed like that for a while. For a long while, actually. You only lifted your head when the sound of light knocking echoed against Jack’s door once more, and soon after, you found his youngest brother cracking the door open and peeking through. 

His eyes had yet to land on your figure. “Hey, Mom’s looking for—”

Before he could utter your name, he looked you dead in the eye. 

“Oh.” He went silent for a few seconds, his eyes flickering between you and his brother. Him, of all people, should be the least surprised to see you cuddled up with Jack. “You.”

There was a certain poison in his tone that struck you right where it hurt the most. It was the way he spat through gritted teeth and looked at you with so much indifference. (It was really a façade, but you were too entranced under his gaze to realize that he could never bring himself to hate you.) The whole room seemed to shift uncomfortably with the way the tension flowed between you and Luke. 

No matter how hard you tried to mask your pain and your desperation for him to notice you, you would never be able to hide how you really felt. Not with him. 

“You can tell her I’ll be right down,” you murmured, slowly moving your legs from Jack’s lap, but before you could even finish your sentence, Luke disappeared as quickly as he came. When you looked back in the door frame, all you were met with was a blank wall and the faint image of where the boy stood before.

You could feel Jack lightly pat your thigh, trying his hardest to support you with the little attention he was diverting toward you. With a small sigh, you pushed yourself off the mattress and wiped your palms against the fabric of your pants, reluctantly leaving the room. Alex wished you good luck, but his fleeting words flew straight through one ear and out the other. 

Downstairs, the fathers were still loud as ever, and the sizzling in the kitchen now turned into the delicious aroma of freshly cooked lunch. Quinn’s voice echoed up the staircase, and you could hear how he attempted to entertain his mom as she waited for you to come back down. 

As soon as your feet hit the bottom floor, you could already sense Quinn’s eyes on you. He looked like he was being held hostage, and you could argue that he was begging you for help. He wasn’t the only Hughes boy with his gaze locked on you, but he was the only one you would give attention to.

“Oh, look! Just who you were looking for, Mom,” the eldest boy managed to divert the attention away from him and towards you. You scowled at him just before Ellen turned around, plastering on a smile as you walked towards them.

You gently placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder, “I was just up in Jack’s room. Luke said you were looking for me?”

“Oh, that’s right! Could you grab that fancy set of plates from the cabinet in your house, sweetie? It’s too high to reach for any of us parents, and you know Lukey and Quinn don’t help out with anything anymore,” Ellen spoke, evoking an argument from her oldest son. It only took one glare from her to shut him up, and you couldn’t help but giggle at his complacence. 

You nodded your head with a grin, still fighting more giggles as you swerved past Quinn. He lunged at you, bringing his hands up to your waist as if he was going to tickle you, but you managed to jump just out of his reach before continuing on your journey to grab the plates Ellen wanted. 

Once you made it back into your house, you dragged a chair up to the counter and climbed onto the cushioned seat, opening the cabinet and setting your gaze on the fake fine china. You only grabbed a few at a time, not wanting to break anything in fear of your mother getting mad at you. Eventually, you had gotten down to the last few plates, and once you had them in your hands, you closed the cabinet and stepped down from the chair.

Perhaps you should’ve been more aware of how high you were, because somehow, the bottom plate smashed against the countertop and shattered in your hands, causing you to let out a small scream. The porcelain had broken into small pieces, cutting into your palms, but you managed to place the reset of the plates down before beginning to worry about the amount of cuts you had on your hands. 

“Shit.” You mumbled under your breath, looking at the floor to see how many shards were scattered around the floor. Your only form of protection on the soles of your feet were the fluffy socks you were wearing, and the distance between the pieces was far enough to where you could step past them. 

As soon as you deemed it safe to walk normally, you swiveled on your heel to analyze the messy situation you found yourself in. You definitely should have been more careful, and now you had to clean up all the small plate shards with cuts in your hands. Fuck, your hands were still bleeding, and it hadn’t even occurred to you that it was now dripping down your arms. 

All you could do was stand in place, shock still coursing in your veins. The sink on the island was in the middle of the plate murder, and you didn’t want to risk accidentally stepping on something sharp. Before you could even begin to make your way to the half-bath near the kitchen, you heard footsteps bounding through the sunroom. The glass door slid open far too aggressively—so much so that you thought it would shatter, too—and you assumed it was Quinn coming to check on you.

The plate breaking was loud enough to be heard from the other house, especially with the connected room, but you didn’t think it would be that big of a deal for him. You were usually trustworthy enough to not accidentally hurt yourself, but this was a prime example of how you really weren’t.

You didn’t want any questions to be asked, and because it was Quinn, you knew you would get made fun of before being helped. “Don’t worry—”

“Holy shit, are you okay?” The voice that spoke up was not Quinn. 

Immediately snapping your head around to look at the boy standing there, frozen, your frown contorted into a grimace. “Luke—shit—hey,” you trailed off, unsure of what to say to him. “Uh, yeah, I’m fine, I was just being stupid and—”

“What the fuck happened? You’re gonna bleed out if you don’t wash your hands and wrap them up.” His heavy footsteps inched closer and closer until he was standing right in front of you, taking your forearms into his calloused hands and inspecting how bad your injuries were. “C’mon, we gotta wash this off.” 

Luke led you to the bathroom as if it was his own house, running the tap and allowing the water to get most of the red liquid off your hands before taking a clean towel and gently tapping the rest off. 

He was unbearably gentle with you. You felt ashamed to think of how fast your heart was beating at such a simple gesture; as if him caring about you meant anything except the fact that growing up together meant you both cared for each other when someone was hurt. Sighing to hide your true feelings, you slowly took your hands away from his touch, “Luke, I’m fine. Really. You don’t have to do this.”

His eyebrows furrowed, “What do you mean? Of course I’m going to clean you up if you hurt yourself.” He immediately took your hands back into his and resumed his actions, quickly grabbing ointment from the cabinet above the toilet. Squeezing out a dollop of the cream, he soothingly rubbed it against your wounds with a focused frown adorning his features.

You took the chance to admire him candidly. He was so worried about you, and it was so cute. He wouldn’t even let you take care of yourself because he wanted to do it for you, and he was so serious about it. You had always thought his focused face was adorable, even when you were kids, but as you grew up, it only got cuter and cuter. Fuck, you were so gone for him.

You hadn’t even realized you were staring until he looked up at you and immediately looked back down at your hands. He cleared his throat awkwardly and questioned, “Does it hurt?” 

“Hm?” You snapped yourself out of your trance, your face heating up with the unexpected eye contact. “Oh, uh, no. It doesn’t hurt.” The pain you were feeling came more from your heart than it did from your body. It hurt to be in such close proximity to the boy you longed so deeply for. The awkward silence floating between the two of you pained you even more. 

Luke nodded and rummaged through the drawers until he found gauze, taking great care to wrap it around your hands without causing you too much discomfort. When he finished, all he did was usher you out of the bathroom with a hand on your lower back, turning off the lights without so much as a word. 

Only when you entered the kitchen did a small mumble leave the boy’s lips. “Try to be more careful next time, okay? Can’t have you going around injuring yourself and shit, or you’re gonna make me—us worry too much.” He cleared his throat after his slip-up, hoping you didn’t hear what he said. You did. “Oh, and Jack told me to let you know the guys are throwing a party tonight. He said to invite you so you could buy cups and shit, but you’re kinda . . . banged up right now.”

“It’s fine. I’ll go grab stuff from the store later—”

“No!” Luke exclaimed, his eyes blowing wide once he realized how loud he protested your suggestion. “I mean, no, it’s okay. I’ll go get the stuff. You shouldn’t drive with your hands all cut up like that. They don't care who buys what.”

You blinked at him. He was acting so weird; it was almost like he cared about you. But it didn’t matter. The others were throwing a party, which meant there were going to be tons of girls all over him, and it wouldn’t be right for you to get mad if you were the one who caused the rift between you two.

With a shrug, you silently agreed to his proposal and turned to grab the remaining set of plates still sitting on the counter. You couldn’t even take two steps before Luke was already sliding ahead of you and taking the ceramic platters into his arms. “Luke, you really don’t have to do all of this. I’m fine, look,” you showed him your hands, front and back, to try and convince him to let you do something. 

“No, you’re hurt. And I wouldn’t be a good best friend if I made you injure yourself more.”

Best friend.

Two very opposing emotions coursed through your veins. On one hand, the term ‘best friend’ still sent a pang through your chest, knowing you would never be more to him than just a best friend. But on the other hand, it relieved you to know that he still considered you close enough to be his best friend. 

God, you were such a mess. You were running away from him in fear of rejection, but then you couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him. What the hell was wrong with you?

Eventually, the two of you made it back into his house, the boy announcing your arrival and placing the plates down onto the dining table. He immediately found his spot back on the couch in between the fathers like before, and you instantly got hounded by both the mothers’ questions being launched at you all at once.

“I’m fine, Mom,” you grimaced. You attempted to pull your hands away from her inspecting gaze, but she brought them right back to her face. “Mom, it doesn’t even hurt anymore! Lukey already put medicine on it and wrapped them up, anyway!” You were growing impatient, and your complaints slowly turned into whines. 

Thankfully, as soon as she heard Luke’s nickname leave your mouth, she dropped your hands back to your sides and grinned widely at you.

“Well, then! I’m sure you’re just fine, aren’t you?”

You sighed begrudgingly. “Yes, Mom.” You were just happy she stopped nagging you.

What you didn’t know was that she and Ellen were in pain watching their two children stay so far away from each other for such a long time. The parents always thought you two would have confessed by the time you graduated high school, but you were in college and Luke was having an amazing rookie season. It clearly didn’t work out the way they thought it would have.

You also didn’t know that Luke’s heart practically exploded out of his chest when he heard you use his nickname so nonchalantly. He always overheard you addressing him as Lukey to his brothers, but you never did it when you knew he was listening. It was almost as if saying it made your mouth run dry. 

And it did.

It finally came time to eat lunch, and your stomach was threatening to growl before you all sat down at the table. Trevor, Alex, and Cole decided to eat at a restaurant instead, encouraging Jack to eat with your families rather than hanging out with them. So he stayed.

There was a specific order in which you sat. There were five members of the Hughes family and three members of your family, meaning there were eight seats total; the rectangular table fit the usual number of people perfectly. The fathers would sit on either end of the table, and the mothers would sit to their right. You and Jack sat next to your mothers, while Luke sat beside you and Quinn beside Jack. 

It was a routine. It never changed. Ever.

Not when Jack kissed you on New Years. He still had to sit opposite to you at the table. Not when you and Luke had the biggest verbal fight in your life, leaving you both with scars on your knees. And especially not when you finally recognized the feelings you had for your best friend.

And as you sat in your spot, with Luke’s thigh pressed against yours, you realized that maybe loving him wasn’t all that bad.

— diorsluv 2024

#luke hughes #luke hughes x reader #luke hughes x y/n #luke hughes fanfic #luke hughes fic #luke hughes fluff #luke hughes angst #luke hughes fanfiction #lh43

[diorsluv]

casual , part 4

“ that i’m just a girl that you bang on your couch ”

series m. list previous chapter next chapter

( socialmedia!au )

rutgermcgroarty

liked by colecaufield, yourusername, and 40,266 others

rutgermcgroarty remind me to never hang out with this mf again 😒

tagged: yourusername

view all comments

yourusername PLEASE I SAID SORRY

→ rutgermcgroarty SORRY WONT CUT IT

→ yourusername I PROMISE I WONT DO IT AGAIN

→ rutgermcgroarty she lied he believed 💔

→ yourusername it’s the other way around dumbass

vivianliu MY LIFE MY LOVE MY WIFE

→ rutgermcgroarty who brought doctor seuss up in this bitch

→ yourusername MWAHHHH 🫶🫶

→ rutgermcgroarty your little boyfriend’s getting jealous yourusername

username40 this has to be on purpose

username21 is this a ploy to make ethan jealous 😭

jackhughes CREAM CHEESE?? SHES BACK

→ rutgermcgroarty 🥯

→ yourusername CREAM CHEESEEEEE

→ mackie.samo who tf is cream cheese

→ lhughes_06 her childhood stuffed toy mackie.samo

edwards.73 damn didn’t know you two were close like that

→ rutgermcgroarty …but we’re best friends?? 😭

→ yourusername yes you did 💀

→ markestapa ethan you gotta use your brain bro

→ luca.fantilli oh my god ur being such a baby

→ adamfantilli okay now this is getting a bit too.. ANNOYING

→ lhughes_06 are you dumb

username68 BEST DUO

→ vivianliu what about me and her 😔

→ username44 BEST COUPLE!!! vivianliu

markestapa she’s soaking wet what did you do

→ rutgermcgroarty 😈

→ markestapa BRO NOT LIKE THAT

→ yourusername CHANGE THE WORDING GOOD GOD

→ markestapa IM SORRY LMAOOOO

→ edwards.73 ur weird mark

→ markestapa stay mad you pussy

→ edwards.73 ?????

→ rutgermcgroarty he got you there ethan

adamfantilli i didn’t know you were strong enough to carry her around on your shoulder

→ rutgermcgroarty wym i got the big guns 💪

→ yourusername luca snapped the pic right before he dropped me 🙄🙄

→ luca.fantilli let him dream for once yourusername

_quinnhughes cream cheese is so dirty now

→ rutgermcgroarty i swear she dragged it through a pile of mud

→ yourusername NO I DIDN’T 😓

username6 ethan needs to get revenge

username27 come get your girlfriend ethan

dylanduke25 she looks like brad marchand if he was dunked in a bucket of water

→ rutgermcgroarty LMFAOOO

→ yourusername DID YOU JUST CALL ME A WET RAT????

→ vivianliu STOP THATS A FUCKING VIOLATION 😭

→ markestapa HOLY SHIT LMAOOOO

username17 I NEED MORE ROSIE N RUT POSTS

→ yourusername noted ✍️

→ username10 PLEASE PLEASE PELAE EPLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLWSSEEEEE yourusername

mackie.samo NORMALIZE FRIEND DATES!!!

→ rutgermcgroarty i think that’s called hanging out

→ mackie.samo yeah but it’s one on one

→ yourusername pretty sure it’s still called hanging out

trevorzegras so you’re the boyfriend

→ rutgermcgroarty you were the first one to figure it out?!????!

→ yourusername you know damn well who it is

→ trevorzegras i was joking 😓

username73 who’s gonna tell ethan rut stole his girl

yourusername

liked by rutgermcgroarty, vivianliu, and 283,917 others

yourusername redecorated my room again with fav idiots #1 and #2 cuz it lowk looked ugly and i hated it!!!

tagged: vivianliu, rutgermcgroarty

view all comments

edwards.73 i remember taking videos of us in those mirrors

→ edwards.73 i rewatch them every night

→ yourusername ETHAN PLS YOU ARE PUBLICLY COMMENTING.

→ edwards.73 oops i must have forgotten

→ lhughes_06 oh. my. god.

→ jackhughes WTFFFFFF

→ rutgermcgroarty bro ts freaky asf

→ luca.fantilli NO ONE NEEDED TO KNOW???

→ colecaufield maybe i should just stop reading your comments

→ dylanduke25 i’m currently pouring bleach into my eyes

→ trevorzegras this comment was NOT NECESSARY

→ _quinnhughes i’m going to kill you

rutgermcgroarty IM FAV IDIOT #1

→ vivianliu NO UR FUCKING NOT

→ yourusername go ahead fight it out

→ vivianliu I KNEW HER FIRST

→ rutgermcgroarty I WAS HER FIRST FRIEND IN COLLEGE

→ vivianliu WE’VE BEEN FRIENDS FOR A DECADE

→ rutgermcgroarty I TOOK HER TO ALL THE FUN PARTIES WHILE YOU STAYED BACK LIKE A PARTY POOPER

→ vivianliu YEAH THEN U HOOKED UP W HER AFTER THE VERY FIRST ONE???

→ rutgermcgroarty HEY LIL BRO WE DONT BRING THAT UP ANYMORE

→ yourusername OH MY GOD WE WERE DRUNK STOP

→ lhughes_06 WHEN TF DID THAT HAPPEN???????

→ vivianliu like the day after she met the whole team 💀 lhughes_06

→ lhughes_06 next time i see you it’s on sight rutgermcgroarty

→ rutgermcgroarty PLEASE WE WERE DRUNK OUT OF OUR MINDS

→ _quinnhughes LUKE YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT HER???

→ lhughes_06 I DIDNT KNOW ANY OF THIS SHIT

username79 rosie and rut hooked up whaaaaat 😱

→ username65 i mean it’s not like we didn’t suspect it

username81 WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON

username87 such an aesthetic room

_alexturcotte i did not click on this post expecting so much drama 😭😭

→ yourusername our unbothered king 🙏🙏

→ markestapa king hahaha get it bc he’s on the kings

→ yourusername 😐

→ markestapa 😞

dylanduke25 i wish i was that mirror

→ yourusername WHAT.

→ edwards.73 run it back?????

→ lhughes_06 PAUSE

→ adamfantilli IM SORRY WHAT

→ luca.fantilli clipped

→ mackie.samo bro’s never beating any allegations ever again

→ colecaufield bro 💀

username70 im so confused wtf is happening

username68 RUT AND ROSIE SINCE WHEN

username43 i’m so sorry but there’s no way luke didn’t know anything

trevorzegras I SEE THE IKEA DRESSER

→ yourusername ITS UR MASTERPIECE 🙌🙌

→ trevorzegras van gogh envies me

jackhughes the sunglasses are pretty stylish if i do say so myself

→ yourusername you actively bullied me when i bought them 🙄

→ vivianliu RIGHT i like to think i pull them off pretty well

→ rutgermcgroarty THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING

→ yourusername YOU BULLIED ME TOO RUT

username53 you’re literally the prettiest girl i’ve ever seen

adamfantilli you didn’t tell me you and rut hooked up.

→ yourusername BECAUSE WE. WERE. DRUNK.

→ luca.fantilli THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING

→ markestapa FR HOW WAS VIVIAN THE ONLY ONE TO KNOW

→ vivianliu don’t drag me into this 😒

→ rutgermcgroarty WE DIDNT EVEN DO ANYTHING

→ vivianliu that’s not what i was hearing from the other room

→ yourusername OH MY GODDDD STOP

→ edwards.73 ⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️

→ rutgermcgroarty PLS IM BEGGING STOP EXPOSING US

username89 rut got some game

username70 yall keep talking abt rosie n rut but wb her and ethan??? 😭

username35 are we just gonna ignore ethan’s whole entire comment

luca.fantilli i will never look in those mirrors the same

→ yourusername neither will i 😬

→ edwards.73 fr

→ lhughes_06 don’t worry when i get back i’ll throw all that shit away and change her locks so he can’t get in

→ yourusername LUKE STOP

jackhughes i hate this it’s so hard

→ yourusername umm WHAT

→ jackhughes trying to guess who’s messing around w u

→ yourusername are u dumb i thought i figured it out already

→ dylanduke25 👀👀👀👀👀

→ yourusername please duker no

→ dylanduke25 t-t-t-t-t-that-

→ yourusername NO

→ dylanduke25 t-t-t-t-t-THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID 😉😉😉

→ yourusername goddammit

username39 rut’s comment 💀💀

username4 DROP THE LIPSTICK SHADE PLSS

_quinnhughes you’re lucky mom doesn’t look at the comments

→ yourusername mhmmm

→ _quinnhughes wait but why don’t you just delete the comments

→ yourusername they’re funny ‼️‼️

_alexturcotte young lady why is that finger up 🤨

→ yourusername technicallyyyy it’s pointing down 🤓🤓

→ _alexturcotte 🙄

vivianliu bae what’s that noise coming from your room

→ edwards.73 she’s prob busy rn broski

→ vivianliu you disgust me

→ yourusername IN BISY

→ yourusername IM BUDT

→ yourusername IM BUSY

→ lhughes_06 OH MY GOD WTFFFF

→ jackhughes scarred for life

→ _quinnhughes i don’t need the mental image of my baby sister good god

next chapter notes ) low quality chapters lets goooo (not proofread)

tags: @dancerbailey3 @hughesfein @loveforaugust @alwaysclassyeagle @love4ldr @inhoodmood @bunting58 @crazycat-ladys-blog @smoooore @bunbunbl0gs

#ethan edwards #ethan edwards x y/n #ethan edwards x reader #ethan edwards fic #ethan edwards fanfic #quinn hughes #jack hughes #trevor zegras #cole caufield #alex turcotte #luke hughes #mackie samoskevich #mark estapa #dylan duke #rutger mcgroarty #luca fantilli #adam fantilli

[diorsluv]

sooooo.. hell week is finally upon us, which means i’m not gonna be as active with the “casual” updates, so pleaseeee be patient with me i promise i’m adding onto the chapter bit by bit 😭😭

#dior yaps #FUCK SCHOOL #hell week will be the death of me

[diorsluv]

sorry for being inactive BUT I’M GRINDING I SWEARRRRR

i was writing some good ol angst (real fic) AND I SWEAR TO GOD IT WAS 12 WHEN I LAST CHECKED??? SINCE WHEN THE FUCK WAS IT 2 AM 😭😭

anyways send ideas for “casual” cuz ur girl barely got any up in this hollow ass head 🥰

#dior yaps #i’m going fucking insane

[diorsluv]

would you ever write a blurb for feathers??? because i’m so interested how they finally confessed and got together

YES YES YESSS?? this shit has been on my mind for like a month but i haven’t been able to think of a good quality confession (also i lowk gotta read back on the feather lore to make things canonically accurate) 😓🙏

#dior yaps #feather asks #please also give me prompts or sum shit i needa add more to my lukey pookie repertoire #doesnt have to be related to feather but it can be!!!

[diorsluv]

PLEASE SEND IN ASKS ABOUT FEATHERRR

i’m missing my babies too much but i can’t come up with good shit to post 😔

#dior yaps #luke hughes #luke hughes fanfic #luke hughes fic #luke hughes x reader #luke hughes x y/n