relax

“Maybe you could break it to him gently? It’ll suck more if you keep lying to him and getting his hopes up that you’re into his snaps.” 

adam: they're 18 and i'm 24

adam: so 6 years

adam: so acceptable???

riley: i once dated a 25 year old when i was 18

“I didn’t either. I mean really, what do you even need one for until high school?”

He took a step back, giving her a quick once-over. “I don’t know. This-” He motioned his hand to over the frame of her body. “-could pass for Regina George. Not very sure if your personality could, too, but only time will tell.” He gave her a pointed look twisting one side of his mouth. “I didn’t ask you to stop, don’t put words in my mouth, woman. I’m just sayin’, you have a problem, I offered you a solution.” He shrugged. “But to be fair, I could complain about my siblings, too.”

"I'm pretty sure the only thing Regina and I have in common is our hair and eye colour. --- And I think between the two of us, you would be the Regina George." She raised her eyebrow, lightly poking his shoulder. "Well you're more than welcome to if that's what you want to do."

Nat chuckles, cocking his head slightly. “I feel your pain.” He begins. “I’ve got 8 siblings.” 

“I’m too old for that shit, but can’t you just, like, ignore the messages or whatever? That way you won’t have to tell him you don’t care what he’s textin’ you.”

“That is adorable. I wouldn’t have the heart to tell him that much either, honestly. In his defense, I probably would have been far more annoying if I were in his position. I can only imagine how 11 year old Cleo would have felt about having access all those filters.”

"I'm thanking my lucky stars that he doesn't know about the filters yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before all I see if flower crowns and dog face."

“You’re lucky if that’s the most annoying thing your brother does.” Rhys muttered mostly to himself, ending his own thought with a half-humored snort as he reminisced on his own relationship with his brother. Then again, Dill was no longer eleven… and he hadn’t been around when he was that age either. “They grow up and stop doing that, and then you’ll miss it.”

“My daughter will not be getting a phone until she is like 15.”

“I call all my friends ‘hoe’,” he told her. “Unless you’re a real hoe, then I’d call you a scum-sucking road whore.” He grinned at the reference he’d made, hoping she’d caught on. He kept giving her a pointed look, as if daring her to open what her brother had sent, and only let his features soften when she put her phone back. “Hey, I’m not the one who’s complainin’ about their brother.” He shrugged.

"Lucky for you," She said with a smirk. "I'm no Regina George." The blonde reached into her pocket expertly flipping the silencing switch without pulling the device out. "Okay I get it, man. I'll stop talking about my brother." Riley tried to hold a serious look, but her features lightened as she laughed.

“Then don’t complain about how irritated you get receiving your brother’s snaps if you’re not gonna do anything about it,” he told her, lightly, not really reprimanding her for anything. “Hoe, don’t do it.” He warned her, fixing a stern gaze at her as she looked at her phone.

"Did you just call me a hoe?" The blonde questioned with an eyebrow raised, a laugh escaping her throat. She matched the boy's gaze as she locked her phone, slipping it back into her pocket. "There. You happy now?"

“ what makes you think he doesn’t know that? maybe he sends you a shit load of snapchats just to annoy you– looks like something little brothers would do. ”

“that's a good point, it's not like i rip into him for it, kind of just open them and don't reply. i think he just sends it for the hell of it. --- you have brothers? ”

Dahlia couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “Don’t know how well that could work for a two year old. Bobby pins are a danger to a kid that never stops moving. The hair donuts though — might be a good idea.”

"Maybe clips would work better? They're larger and less easier to swallow, and makes it harder for the crazier kids to shake out of them. ---- Your two year old a Star Wars fanatic?"

Dahlia just wished she had some bourbon in a flask to take the edge off. Last thing she wanted was to have someone look at her with judgy eyes. “Alright, hear me out —- I know it might sound weird but… do you have any idea how I’m supposed to do Princess Leia buns and have them stay up all day?”

"A crap ton of bobby pins and hair spray worked for me when I dressed up for my brother's birthday, also those hair donuts."

“I used to do the same thing for my younger siblings. Lucky for me, they weren’t too much of a handful. I think they knew there was only one of me, and one of me can barely get my shit together.” A self-deprecating smile as he looked back on when he was younger, when he would babysit Tullia and Ambrose and Dewey while their father was passed out on the front porch. They were pretty well-behaved, but still had those irritating qualities children usually had. “Kids these days… it’s scary how they’re maturing more for their age than people my age ever had.”

“You're lucky you've got such understanding siblings. Most of the time I was trying to stop Finn from running off to who knows where while also trying to make sure that Mike wasn't getting into my dad's stuff, Jack kept to himself and James was too young to get into trouble, but was so freaking demanding that I wanted to lock him in a room sometimes.” Her mother worked hard to support their large family and make up for all the times her father was off with drugs and other women. Riley was left alone to take care of everyone maybe 3 or 4 times a week, she often felt shitty for moving out. "Aaand I was rambling, you probably don't care about any of that, so sorry.

“Well, I mean, unless he takes snaps of your house burning down or takes videos of him being kidnapped for ransom and puts it in his story, I don’t think that’s very likely to happen.” He shrugged, shaking his head to try and ease her fears.

"Okay, but I'm going to pay a little attention to what he sends me, just in case that actually does happen." A small chirp from her pocket caused her to pull her phone out, of course there were two fresh snapchats from her brother waiting to be opened.

“My sister sends me… what do you call ‘em? Snaps? Yeah, snaps of the kids at her daycare. Little shits screamin’ and jumpin’ and runnin’ around. I ask her, ‘Tully, are you sure you’re running a daycare or are you running a fuckin’ zoo?” He chuckled, shoulders rising and falling quickly to his breath. “No, but seriously. Why are eleven-year olds allowed to handle gadgets these days? Fuck, I feel old.”

"I don't think I could ever do that job. Ya' know? Too much noise. Babysitting my younger brothers when I was 16 was hard enough, definitely don't wanna' do that again." The blonde bit her lip as she thought back to when her four brothers would drive her mental while their parents were away. The memories made her cringe. "Yeah as soon as I got a text from him I called my mum to question what on earth she was thinking."