* 𝓈𝓊𝑔𝒶𝓇 / 𝕔𝕠𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕

                    he should’ve let her manager or publicist or literally anyone else on her team go after her. he should’ve hung back, mingled with the rest of the crowd with a few more drinks, and waited until he was given the okay to leave. but, he hadn’t been able to stop himself as dove had retreated from him. he wasn’t supposed to care, but he did. he really did. and that, in itself, was a new feeling for brodie. he scuffed the ground with his feet as he tried to think of something else to say, but nothing felt quite right. “that’s good,” he settled on lamely, though it was obvious to anyone that her answer wasn’t true. he didn’t take dove to be someone who would walk out of a party, especially one thrown specifically in her honor.                    "don’t worry about it. it’s part of the deal,” he shrugged, a poor attempt to glaze over their tough situation. it wasn’t until after the words left his mouth that brodie considered that still referring to as their relationship as a deal did the exact opposite. he wiped at the bridge of nose, suddenly wondering if he had missed any of the icing, before letting out a deep sigh as he leaned back against the wall. arms returning to their crossed position, he looked over at the girl who made him feel things he didn’t think was possible – and didn’t know what to say next. typically good with silence, he felt the need to say something and awkwardly spoke up, “sorry i haven’t.. replied to your texts. i just needed to figure shit out.”

                    for brief moments, brodie forgot about all the drama that had ensued since their unplanned kiss. in the moment, all of the stress and agony from the previous week seemed to fade away. instead, he chuckled as he failed to dodge her finger covered with icing, deciding against returning the favor. he knew dove well enough at this point to know that she wouldn’t take kindly to having icing ruin the makeup she’d probably spent a considerable amount of time on for her own release party. then again, he was pretty sure she wouldn’t want icing smeared on her face at any time. rather than retaliating, the male simply shook his head at her as he grabbed a napkin to wipe his nose clean. to contrast the moments he forgot about the rest of the world, there were other times when the flashing cameras seemed to be the loudest thing in existence and he was very aware that despite what their contract said, he shouldn’t be here. he shouldn’t be pining over his (former) best friend’s ex-fiancé.                     his eyes followed her every move, noticing the slight fall in her smile when his own countenance was difficult to read, at least to the untrained eye. when someone flipped through these photos in the morning, they wouldn’t think twice about the small smile on brodie’s features. it was the one positive about naturally being quite emotionless. people didn’t question it when he was actively hiding something. however, with dove and her million dollar smile, the falter was noticeable, at least to brodie. maybe it was because he’d spent so much time with her where they’d been forced to pretend. or maybe it was because he actually cared now, and he picked up on the little details about the female, even if he didn’t want to.                    brodie waved a hand at the surrounding crowd, a thank you on behalf of dove before he trailed through the attendees to follow dove in the direction he’d seen her disappear. he didn’t want to admit that his arm felt strangely empty from the moment she’d walked away, and he certainly didn’t want to think about the fact that for the sake of his and harris’ friendship, he shouldn’t be following her. but appearances aside, he cared. for the first in what felt like an inexplicably long time, he actually cared. that fact struck him as he slipped out of the exit to find dove, the door shutting and leaving them in a quiet alley far from any prying eyes on the street. crossing his arms so he wouldn’t reach out to take her hand, he asked after a beat of silence, “you okay?”

      after  much  anticipation,    darling’s  sophomore  ep  RULES  releases  onto  all  streaming  platforms.  

     allie felt excited to be going out after so long. she’d spent her twenty first birthday pregnant, so needless to say, a night out was long overdue. “oh, i hope so !!” she said with a smile, peeking her head in the vanity to fix up a few out of place hairs. “oh my god, you’re too nice. i haven’t worn heels in ages.” she said, giving her friend a bright smile. “thank you, thank you so much, dove.” the girl was nervous about leaving violet at home, but she’d prepared in advance, and she didn’t really plan on staying out for too long. “where are we headed again ?”

     “  anyways,  i  think  you’re  going  to  have  a  blast.”  dove  says,  sat  at  her  vanity  mirror  she  brushes  on  soft  pink  shadow  onto  her  eyelid.  yet  another  night  were  she  decides  to  drag  one  of  her  friends  out  to  a  night  club ,  solely  to  get  herself  out  of  the  house  and  (  most  importantly  )  distracted.  with  so  much  in  the  gray  with  what  her  and  brodie  even  are  dove,  had  decided  to  pour  her  attention  into  her  friends  rather  than  sit  and  mull  over  the  situation  any   longer.  “oh,  i   almost  forgot!  there’s  a  shoe  box  by  the  door  over  there.  those  are  for  you” 

The idea of leigh and normani in the same room makes my heart beat fast even if they are fighting

                     “emphasis on the empty,” brodie reminded dove with raised eyebrows, an expression on his features showing that he was still questioning this whole supposed adventure she had convinced him to join her on. right now, it was really just… a house with some scary decorations inside. sure, the animatronics could be turned on, but the celebrities that had been assigned to do the scaring were likely done with their shifts as well – just like dove was – with the carnival closing for the day. “but i told you i’d come, so i’m here,” he sighed. it wasn’t exactly a testament to his feelings for her (though that definitely helped). brodie was still a man of his word, to the best of his abilities, so despite his bigger desire to go home and just tinker with his instruments for the rest of the night, he wasn’t going to back out of this haunted house tour after he’d committed. plus, he wasn’t exactly complaining about the additional time with dove as just the two of them — a real interaction rather than something staged for the cameras.                     frowning, he loosened the bowtie even more until it fell to two ends on either side of his collarbone. “i don’t know about that,” he commented as he pulled the bowtie from his collar and shoved it into his pocket. “this uniform is fucking dumb.” he could make do with the stripes for the rest of the night, but the bowtie would have to go. “i think you should’ve kept the zombie makeup on though,” brodie teased, knowing it wasn’t exactly the first look dove would’ve picked for herself.