✨ ── bloom.

@greasersbro

her papa had been intrigued by rms eastbourne from the very start , calling it a technological MARVEL and the ship of dreams. for the most part , it was his deep seated interest that sparked ramona’s curiosity and led her to bet almost all of her life savings for a chance to win a third class ticket aboard the luxurious ship. it was quite a dangerous wager ; in all honesty , she should have lost. but by some miracle ( and a quick sleight of hand ) , she somehow managed to win the sole ticket. 

and now she’d gone and mucked it all up by stepping on some rich woman’s dress whilst technically trespassing on the first class deck. it was more than likely that the woman owned a hundred more dresses just like the one she was wearing , but would throw a hissy fit over this one anyways. god , rich people were absolutely NAUSEATING. ramona was already in hot water with the chief steward to begin with ( she’d called him out on his harassment of a young woman earlier ) , and knew for a fact that this incident would land her in the ship’s makeshift jail for the rest of the voyage. 

god, how he wanted to deny that. he wanted to tell her not to be stupid, that he’d give it up in a heartbeat for her. but he wouldn’t. he wished he would. he wished it was something he didn’t care about. something he hadn’t grown up watching and being involved in. something he didn’t love with a burning passion. but then, he felt that exact way about her. danielle meant the world to him. he had never loved anybody the way he loved her. but he still couldn’t lie to her. that was unfair. to both of them. he felt the tears well up in his eyes and he wished he was stronger than this. he was, usually, but then again, this was the first time this had happened. sure, they’d fought before, but they’d never really come close to breaking up. danielle meant more to kieran than she knew, clearly. he wasn’t sure how to react to this. tears were not the way. he sniffed quietly, blinking back the tears that stung at his eyes, glancing down at the necklace in his hand. he dropped it down onto the table and shook his head. “you can leave me, if that’s what you decide to do. but that’s yours. what am i gonna do? give it to the next girl that breaks my heart? keep it.” it sounded way harsher than he had meant it. “i know i don’t seem like a good person right now, but i am. and you know that. you have known me for years, dani. why are you doing this to me? i fucking need you. and i know you need me. we need each other. we’re good for each other. you say that all the time. i know i’m fucking shit, i know that. but god, i love you. and i thought that was enough. when did that stop being enough? when did i start being so blind to the fact that i was losing you?” he was almost desperate by now, practically begging her to tell him where he went wrong. he hated how vulnerable he sounded. how vulnerable he felt. he wasn’t used to this. this was all new to him and he didn’t want it.

bryce didn’t feel too comfortable with the current situation. he didn’t do things like this. it had taken a good two hours for his sister-in-law to even get him into the suit. it fit like a glove, it belonged to his brother and they were, after all these years, still the same size. they had grown up like that, it was nice, actually, being able to share each others clothes. now, though, as he stood outside of gloriana’s house, his nerves were getting the better of him. he almost turned and walked away, but he knew this was an important night. not just for him, but for the church. bryce barely ever thought about himself, he spent all his time focusing on the other people in his life. the people he took care of with his charity work, his family. gloriana, unfortunately. he rang the doorbell after what must have been the tenth time of attempting to and then moving away. when the door opened, he smiled lightly at the girl who opened the door and stepped inside. 

he checked his watch. he was alone. it was eight o’clock and that was the time gloriana had given him. why was he alone? he was beginning to think this was some kind of sick joke and there wasn’t actually a party, she had just said so to make him humiliate himself and try to get people to actually care about something that was beyond them. her voice calmed him instantly. it gave him the impression that he was just letting his mind run wild. he glanced up at the stairs when he heard somebody coming. he felt like his heart had stopped when gloriana finally came into view. god, she looked beautiful. he hated how fucking beautiful she looked. it made it so much harder to pretend that there was no attraction between the two of them. and god, there was. perhaps not on her side, but with bryce? he could pretend he hated her all he wanted, but he wanted to fuck her more now than he ever had when they were teenagers. “you said eight. it’s eight. how is that early? or is there some kind of rich people rule that means you get to parties at nine even though they said eight?”

“yeah, that’s.. i’m not sure anything i said would help that, actually.” bryce reached forward to rub his palms gently along her bare arms before he was taking her hands in his and lifting them to his mouth to press light kisses to her knuckles. “i know. and it’s okay. don’t worry about me. or them. they can laugh all they want, but i’m the one with a beautiful girlfriend with a huge heart and an even bigger ass.” he laughed quietly and stole a kiss from her, shifting them so that they were side by side. “besides, now they know never to fuck with you again, huh?”

      this was actually normal behaviour for aspen wilkinson, so it shouldn’t surprise her when she’s waking up with a raging headache and someone’s arm is weighing her down to the bed. this wasn’t her bedroom and it was raining outside, she knew that. but the…for now, stranger’s lips were pressed to the back of her neck, and they were asleep. their deep breathing was a good sign as was their heartbeat she could feel against her back. aspen took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes, “ – hey…hey, you,” she rasped and started poking their side without being able to turn over. “i thought you didn’t like sleepovers. why did you let me sleep over?” aspen frowned, but then whined and covered her face with both of her hands because she was so sore and this really was comfortable. she somehow managed to turn over and pressed her face against the other’s shoulder and didn’t say another word. hopefully they didn’t kick her out, despite her words, because she would be sick as soon as she got out of the bed. | @brutedivine​

parties hosted by the rogers-winston household were always very lavish affairs. extravagant and inordinately expensive, they always ended up being the talk of the town for months to come. as opposed to her husband, who loved all the attention and socialization that came with these types of parties, gloriana never really developed a liking for them. if anything, she hated all the fuss and effort that went into the preparation. today, however, was an entirely different ordeal. today, she was actually glad that she had so much to do. it helped her keep her mind off of bryce, helped settle the butterflies that arose in her stomach every time she thought of him. the rational part of her knows that it’s stupid, that there is little to no chance of them reigniting a spark that went out decades ago. yet there’s a little part of her telling her to doll herself up, to look good for the only man she’s truly ever loved. 

she’s in the middle of curling her hair when the doorbell rings, a sound that fills her with worry. glancing at the clock, she notes that it’s barely past eight o’clock. it’s way too early for the guests to arrive. "i’ll be right with you!” she yells down the stairs, knowing full well that one of the butler’s must’ve let the guest in. she takes a few moments to finish curling her hair, and another few to push loose strands into place. if she’s learnt anything from this parties, it’s that a hostess must always look good. the click of her heels echoes through the mostly empty house as she rushes down the stairs, using the barrier to steady herself. she stops on top of the last set of stairs, shoulders relaxing as she glances at the person at the bottom. “hi. you’re...—you’re early.”

they both know it’s the emptiest of threats. but bryce has the look of someone who could fuck up a life in seconds, so he uses it to his advantage when he needs to. it doesn’t help that gloriana knows him all too well, at least, she used to. she knew his heart and his mind and how he really felt, about everything. in the past, at least. the future, the present, that was something she had no idea about, so at least he had that going for him. “an old friend. hmm.” he rolled the words around in his mouth for a moment, they felt bitter and they stung as he said them. an old friend. she summed up their entire relationship as if they were nothing more than acquaintances. as if he didn’t give her his heart and she didn’t stomp on it, run it over, break it into a million pieces. maybe she didn’t know she had done that. he was calm, cool, collected. he didn’t allow her to see he was hurting when they broke up. he waited until he was with his brother to let himself really cry, really hurt. he understood that she was a busy girl, trying to go for her career, making it in the world. he could never have allowed himself to stand in the way of that. so, he didn’t. but god, he wished he had. they could have been happy, really happy. now his entire life was just full of ‘what if’s’ and wondering what things would have been like had he fought for her that day. it broke his heart to think about; so he didn’t. he took the sheet of paper from her and scanned over it before looking back up at her. “it’s easy to forget what someone cares about when they forget all about you, though, huh?” it’s so fucking bitter and he doesn’t care. maybe he deserves to be bitter, just once. “are these the names of the other people? i’ll go to them, then.”

bryce didn’t say anything. he didn’t need to. she was talking enough for the both of them. but there was no way that he was leaving. as far as he was concerned, gloriana had been the love of his life. she still was. she meant the world to him, even if he meant nothing to her. her feelings for him didn’t change the way that he felt about her. he had constantly kept up with her career throughout the years, ignoring every picture and every sentence that included her husband. the man that had separated them from each other. all so that she could be where she was now. he was still angry about it. bitter. but she was happy, it seemed. how could he argue with that? well, he had when she had broken up with him. he had argued for what felt like hours, pleading with her to see the truth in their relationship, the love they shared, how real it was. ultimately, it had not been enough. “it’s not a social visit. we’re doing some work with the church. about the problem with the homeless people. seems the only thing stopping us actually doing any real work is your office. you wanna sort that out or do i have to go to the press and mention that you don’t care about the homeless people living on our streets?” god, it was an empty threat, he would never do anything to damage her career or her personally. bryce was a man of god, anyway, he was sweet, loving, kind. he had never been unkind or unfair to anybody. he just didn’t want her to see his true feelings, that, after all these years, he was still hopelessly and pathetically in love with her.