Bruises on Your Thigh • •

[willow-jae dakota holt]

Willow didn’t always meet up with her housemates after classes, since those who were in college didn’t always have matching schedules. Plus, some of them took their studies a little more serious than the others, preferring to spend time in the library rather than one of the student bars. Will, on the other hand, needed a drink to warm herself up on this winter’s day and she knew that there was one guy who she lived with who would be inclined to share that sentiment. Her last class of the day had been cancelled, which was a bonus since it was her last class before the holidays. Will was scheduled to work some mean hours at Gotham over winter break, but she had volunteered for the shifts. She didn’t have a family to spend Christmas with, and she wouldn’t be leaving the city for anyone. It made sense that for once in her life she could be the girl Kael relied on to show up and lock up when he needed the cover. So, with the little free time she did have before that all began and the holiday crowds swarmed, Will wanted to enjoy herself. She sent Zander a text as she exited the garage, crossing the campus towards the union bar.

Even if he didn’t join her, Will would still order herself a drink. She wasn’t the type to feel shy about drinking alone. She had done many worse things in her life and lived to keep the tale to herself. If all else failed she would drag the idiots she lived with out on one last night out before the holiday chaos struck and she was caught on the outskirts of their own plans and family fussing. Will actually hadn’t asked any of them what they would be doing this year, purely because she didn’t want to have to have the conversation, or risk earning herself an invitation if anyone was heading back to wherever it was they came from. They might have lived under one roof now, but their little dysfunctional family had come from far and wide to be in the city that never sleeps. Her phone buzzed with a reply from her playboy housemate, and she smirked, calling the bartender over to order Zander his usual. She knew the guys well when it came to the little things. Will tended to shy away from learning their life stories, or the names of their relatives. That sort of stuff was a little too much for her.

Grabbing the bottles of beer, Will moved to one of the tables in the corner, dropping to a cushioned seat and ditching her belongings and her jacket beside her. Her jacket was too thin for this time of year, but she had always hated thick coats. They were heavy and bulky, always getting in the way and weighing her down more than they helped. She raised her bottle to her lips, resting her elbows on the scuffed table top. Her fingers still held a few specks of motor oil from her final class of the year, but that was nothing new. She was a girl who spent most of her waking time fiddling with engines and wearing oil or grease like it was a new accessory. Will had stopped worrying about her appearance a very long time ago, if she had ever worried about it at all. When Zander arrived she waved him over and simple slid his beer towards him. “Now why am I not surprised that you said yes to my invitation?” She asked drolly, a smirk tugging at her lips, her own bottle hovering just an inch from them.

• • •

TAGGED! Zander Frederick Reich!
WORDS! 615!
OUTFIT! Trouble Magnet!
LYRICS! Centuries - - - Fall Out Boy
NOTES! <3

[Zander Frederick Reich]

Zander wasn’t the biggest fan of Christmas time, or any of the family oriented holidays. He liked Halloween and he loved New Year’s but that was pretty much it. He’d never really had his family and once he got older he felt like he was invading on Jackson and his family. Janelle always said he was being silly feeling that way but he did all the same. So when he moved to New York, he made excuses about extra homework and actual work taking him away so he couldn’t go back to Dallas. Janelle flew up to New York that first Christmas, showing up on his doorstep Boxing Day because she hadn’t believed him. Thankfully he really had booked a gig and she went with him the next day to check it out. She might have had two sons, one adoptive, in the modeling world, but she had no idea what really went into it. She hadn’t known the ins and outs but she’d always been curious. And she knew bullshit when she saw it, no matter how glossy people tried to make it. She’d left a couple days later and had only come back in the summer when she wanted to see New York again. It was a good thing Jackson was a model, too or she would have really gotten suspicious about Zander not going home through the summer months, too.

And this year was no different. He’d booked a job in the middle of the break so he wouldn’t have to go home and told Janelle all about it. And he was on campus now to talk to a couple of his professors about getting some extra credit assignments figured out. They were due right after the break and he had a couple questions before he finished them off. He was finishing up the last of his meetings when he got Will’s text. He shot off a quick response before pocketed his phone once again and heading over to the union bar. He liked hanging out and spending time with his roommates, when they were all able to do so. With their awkward schedules, it wasn’t always possible but when it was, it was always a good time.

That morning he’d dressed more for a meeting with a designer he had a contract with than the student he was, even if he really didn’t need to. So walking into the union bar, he felt more like one of those snobby rich kids than the easy going goofball that he knew himself to be. He took a second inside the doors of the bar to search out Will, spotting her waving him down. He unbuttoned his coat as he went, tossing it on the back of his chair as he sat down. “Because I never say no to a pretty face?” He asked, with a grin, accepting the beer. “Even if that face has a streak of grease three inches long.” He said pointing out where the line of motor oil was on his own cheek with a laugh. He was too used to seeing Will with oil or grease or something from an engine on her that it was actually a little strange to see her without her signature accessory.

Tag || willow-jae dakota holt
Words || 575
Clothes || Pretty Playboy
Music|| Say Anything --Marianas Trench
Notes || <3!

[willow-jae dakota holt]

Willow was her own person. She didn’t cater to anyone’s whims or wishes, and she didn’t try to fit into some mould. When she looked into the mirror she often only saw tired eyes and grease smears, with perhaps some faded eyeliner and wild hair that she had never learnt to tame. She didn’t try to be like other girls, or even shape her life around some grand plan. She simply lived how she wanted to live now, and worked at what she knew she was good at to try and make a future for herself. She would never be a rich woman in some fancy house with a nice view, but that had never been something Will wanted. Her biggest dream was to one day own her own garage, but she knew even that would come after years of hard work and proving herself first. Before that she needed to graduate; and the years of college seemed to last a lifetime in the eyes of a girl who had been fiddling with car engines for almost as long as she could remember.

She hadn’t cared to do anything else with her life, and hadn’t really explored the avenues to see if there was any talent she could be hiding beneath the overalls and denim she favoured daily. Will had always known she wanted to be a mechanic, so it didn’t matter what other teachers encouraged or praised her for; none of it had ever mattered. And now, it was the only connection, beyond the necklace that never came off, to her late father. She missed the man terribly, but she could never talk about it. She had never even mentioned to people that he was dead or that her mother had abandoned her when she was still just a little girl. All of it was too painful, and despite the years of reform she had done to get to where she was now, Will was terrified that opening those old wounds might take her back to a place that was dark and dangerous. It might land her in trouble again, and this time youth and grief were not cards for lawyers to play in a courtroom. She didn’t ever want to see the inside of one again.

So instead she focused on living her life as best as she could now. She had school, the bar, and her housemates. They kept her from falling from everything she had worked hard to achieve after regaining her freedom. Willow crossed her eyes to try to see the smudge of grease Zander was pointing to, but she wasn’t embarrassed or bothered by the dark mark on her porcelain white skin. It didn’t matter to her how she looked and she wasn’t going to turn a bright shade of red over it when she had spent the morning working under the hood of a car. “You act like it’s something new.” She said with a careless shrug, taking another swig from her beer bottle before looking Zander up and down, her pierced nose crinkled in dislike. “And if you suited up for me I have to tell you this isn’t a date. And I’m allergic to mistletoe.” She could guess he had been at a meeting or something for modelling work, but that had never stopped her from teasing the pretty boy about his looks. Will often joked that she was more masculine than Zander, and she was just waiting for him to name a date for her to prove it.

• • •

TAGGED! Zander Frederick Reich!
WORDS! 592!
OUTFIT! Trouble Magnet!
LYRICS! Centuries - - - Fall Out Boy
NOTES! <3

[Zander Frederick Reich]

Zander’s life hadn’t always been as great as it was now. There had been a time when the possibility he wouldn’t make it to the next birthday was a reality. It had been a scary time in his life. It was a time most people would have called rock bottom except Zander knew rock bottom, for him, would have been when he ended up like his mother and the man who provided half his DNA. It was written into his genes that he probably should have been an addict but he’d found a better path and with help, the only way was up for him. Zander honestly didn’t think he would ever get as lucky as he was. He hadn’t much baggage and history, so he’d thought he’d be lucky to complete community college! Janelle expected him to do that much and equally pushed and helped him to succeed. He’d never imagined he would be in New York, attending an excellent university that he was paying for by being a male model. It was a little surreal to say the least.

He had Janelle to thank for it all, too. If she hadn’t demanded he move in with them, forced him to go to school everyday and help him get a job, he would probably be on the streets in Dallas somewhere, his name attached to one of the gangs or worse, buried six feet under. It was a scary thought; which was why Zander didn’t like having it. He was grateful for everything Janelle, Jackson and Chris did for him. These days he had his head on straight, knew what he wanted and went after it full throttle. He didn’t know if his major would intrigue him much after college, when the time actually came to put it to good use or if he would re-enroll for more options. And it didn’t matter. He made enough money as a model that if he wanted to go back to school, he could. It was a pretty surreal feeling in and of itself.

Zander had come from a shitty place in Dallas, Texas, where he wouldn’t have become anything at all but a thug. He’d come so far, he had friends who knocked him down a few pegs when his ego got the better of him. They didn’t let him get that high up on a pedestal, Will most of all. He had all these great people in his life that there was honestly no way he was ever finding himself walking down the same path he had been back in Dallas, when he’d been young and stupid. “It’s in a new spot.” He said with a light shrug as if that was why he was pointing it out and not the simple fact that it was there on her face at all. He was used to seeing Will with a smudge of something from a garage on her face somewhere. It was usually shocking to see her after she’d hit the shower and came out fresh faced. It usually took him a couple seconds to realise what was missing whenever he looked at her! “Well, shit. I guess I better call Fabian and cancel those plans I asked him to do for me. Mistletoe. Everywhere.” He said, bringing his drink to his lips to hide the smirk he was sporting.

Tag || willow-jae dakota holt
Words || 602
Clothes || Pretty Playboy
Music|| Say Anything --Marianas Trench
Notes || <3!

[willow-jae dakota holt]

People thought Will was a wild child now, but the girl they saw today was a tame character compared to what she had been just a few years back. In the months after her father’s death Will had spun out of control to the point where the days merged together and she couldn’t have told a stranger her name if they asked it of her. After all, they didn’t toss teenage girls into juvie just because they partied hard and cut a few classes. Will’s temper had almost cost her a future, and while she still held a short fuse today, she wasn’t quite as explosive as she used to be. She would never tell them because she never spoke about where she had come from, but she probably had the trio of idiots she lived with to thank for that, too. They annoyed the hell out of her some days, but they also provided her with the closest thing to a family she had had in years. She knew they weren’t going to toss her to the curb when she did get a little crazy on a night out, just like she wouldn’t leave them to stagger home alone if they did the same.

It was a second chance she wasn’t about to screw up. Her dreams weren’t big, but she wasn’t about to throw them away again. In grief she had been reckless, given in to stupid behaviour and said yes when she ought to have said no. Will wasn’t like that anymore. She could still be impulsive and a little crazy at times, but it was mostly all in the name of fun, rather than trouble. She lived to annoy her housemates and make memories rather than head out at night to ruin lives. She knew there were plenty of people in the world who didn’t believe she could do it and it was those people and their attitudes who pushed her into proving them wrong. Will was a very stubborn little girl at times, the type who only fought back when someone told her that she couldn’t do something.

Her housemates were something else, but there was no place like home. They annoyed the living crap out of her at times, and she had lost count of all the ways she had threatened to kill them, but they were her best friends in all of this. The staff at Gotham were a close second. However, Zander, Fabian and Henderson were the ones who contributed to the rent and kept a roof over her head, and together they caused a riot whenever they went out together. Sometimes she wondered how they put up with each other, but then they also tormented the hell out of each other on a daily basis, so maybe that helped keep the peace in their permanently messy home. “You may be the Casanova of the house, but your charms, or whatever you want to call them, are never going to work on me.” Will informed him before taking a swig of her beer. “I’ve seen you throw up on your own shoes more than once.” She added for good measure, sinking back into her seat and grinning at the gross memories. “So if your plan was to sleep with all of the straight girls at school before you graduate, you’re going to be at least one girl short.” She smirked and tapped her oil stained finger against her chest.

• • •

TAGGED! Zander Frederick Reich!
WORDS! 583!
OUTFIT! Trouble Magnet!
LYRICS! Centuries - - - Fall Out Boy
NOTES! <3

[Zander Frederick Reich]

Until he'd move in with his best friend, Zander though his future to be very bleak. He had no one at home who really cared about him, didn't even bother to check if he was even in the house. He spent more nights out then he ever did in, even when he'd been small. It was no wonder he fell in so easily with that bad crowd back in Dallas. Without Jackson's family taking him in, he probably wouldn't even be alive. Or if he was, he'd be some useless good for nothing gang member though that wasn't really in his personality. He was a troublemaker to be sure but there were lines that even he wouldn't cross. When it all came down to the bottom line, he was too sweet and way too nice for gang life. It would have eaten him up and then spit him back out again; into a nice wooden box.

He might have figured it out and gotten somewhere in life but it probably would have taken him a hell of a lot longer than it had. And he would be forever grateful for that. His family wasn't the people he left behind when he moved as a teenager though it was that family and the one he'd found when he stepped off the plane in New York City. Will, Fabian and Henderson kept him grounded, kept him sane when he was being told to be larger than life. He was a lowly model, nothing impressive or fanciful, even if he had signed a pretty big contract and his face was currently sitting pretty in Times Square. His housemates kept him grounded and he needed that. They also made sure he didn't make a complete and total arse of himself whenever he was out in public with them and for that there were not enough thanks because he knew he could be a ridiculous idiot.

He didn't need to live with people. He could have easily afforded a place of his own but he hated the quiet. And music playing in the background didn't count no matter how loud it was. He needed people around him, constantly chattering or bickering away. Otherwise he felt really alone and that just led to him thinking about everything and getting depressed. He hated that and preferred to be the chipper, if slightly slutty man everyone knew him to be. "Are you absolutely sure about that?" He asked, raising a brow as he lifted his drink to his lips. Zander shook his head, denying even now that it had been him. "That had been Fabian." He said matter-of-fact, despite knowing Fabian never seemed to get as drunk as the rest of them. "You can't forget all those girls questioning their sexuality, thus far thinking we were batting for the same team, Will. They have needs, too." He said, softly as if he were breaking some nonexistent news to her finally.

Tag || willow-jae dakota holt
Words || 492
Clothes || Pretty Playboy
Music|| Say Anything --Marianas Trench
Notes || <3!

[willow-jae dakota holt]

Will still had walls; after what she had gone through who wouldn’t? She had needed them to cope after her mother just straight up and abandoned her and her dad. Even though she insisted she didn’t care about the woman, and would walk away from her if she showed up today, a tiny part of Willow wondered if it was her fault. After that the walls thickened once her dad died, because he had been the only one left who cared about her. Bricks were added once she was sentenced because they needed to be. She wasn’t going inside and letting anyone see her weaknesses. She got through that sentence keeping to herself and letting people know little more than her name. After arriving in New York it was hard to let go of them. She didn’t need them anymore, but Will still kept her past and her heart behind those concrete blocks. She never admitted to her fears, but she was scared of what her housemates might say if they knew the truth about their wildflower from Mojave. Being a rebel was one thing, but being a rebel with a record was something else. She didn’t want them to start tiptoeing around her or treating her differently.

They were a group of misfits under one roof. A family of oddballs, but even so she didn’t know if it would ruin them to blurt out the horror story of her past. She questioned if they really needed to know. It wasn’t like she was causing trouble now – at least not the kind of trouble that would have the NYPD putting an APB out for her. They also weren’t the type to sit having fuzzy heart to hearts while the sun rose. If they were still awake when the sun came up they were drunk and staggering home, or half-conscious on the couch if they hadn’t made it up to their respective bedrooms. The closest they got to warm fuzzies were slurs of ‘I love you’ when far too much alcohol had been consumed and no one had left with a stranger on their arm. Even then such affection was laughed off teasingly and mocked by Will. Her guard was always up just in case.

Will fixed Zander with a confident stare. “If I ever wake up next to you we better call the men in white coats – because I’ll have lost what’s left of my mind.” She swept her beer bottle up and raised it to her lips. “I have seen you in far too many poor states to think you could be a good choice.” She said, shaking her head and perishing the very thought. Never, even when she was at her lowest points in New York City, had she thought about taking Zander, Fabian or Henderson up to her attic room and tearing their clothes off. She had shared too much with them to ruin their friendship, and she had seen them in too many worse for wear positions to find them appealing for even a night. Let other girls make that mistake. “No. Fabian slurs his love and throws up on the house plants we no longer have. You, you ruin shoes.” She said with certainty, not letting Zander throw the blame on someone not there to defend themselves. She rolled her eyes. “Those poor girls. But the point was that you’re not getting me out of my overalls.” She reminded him, stopping Zander before he could turn the conversation into a victory speech of notches in his bedpost.

• • •

TAGGED! Zander Frederick Reich!
WORDS! 600!
OUTFIT! Trouble Magnet!
LYRICS! Centuries - - - Fall Out Boy
NOTES! <3

[Zander Frederick Reich]

Zander was a man of many faces. He had the one he showed his friends, the one his family saw and the one that was reserved for the masses. They were all him, they were just different parts of him. He didn't let his heart into the work entirely because he knew better than to let people see the real him, weaknesses, past mistakes and all. His friends saw more because they lived together and it would have been way too hard to keep it all from them. And then there was his family who saw it all. They knew about his childhood, they helped him overcome it. He'd never had anything steady before they'd taken him in and he had never taken a second of it for granted. He would just been just another deadbeat kicking around streets, probably selling drugs or something equally stupid. Maybe he would have gotten out of that and found himself with some nine to fiver at the mill or the whatever he didn't care about factory.

At least now he was trying to better himself and doing a damn good job of it. He didn't ever want to go back to the way it was before he'd been given a home he could be proud of. These days he was spending his nights at he clubs, talking pretty women into going home with him and giving his roommate a reason to want to clean the house top to bottom on a near daily basis. He was a bit of a whore and could admit it. But of all the vices out there, women and booze really weren't that bad. He could have had so much worse as well, but he stuck to the vices he had and never ventured from them for anything at all. And sure, it led to some very compromising situations but they almost all included a roommate and a door that Zander could have sworn was locked… Or the kitchen that one time but that had not been his fault. He had no idea the woman he'd brought home with him that night had been a little too eager, and a little too intrigued by the idea of getting caught.

It all meant that Will and the lot had plenty of stories she could pull from to scare any potential bed buddies away from him and their shared house. Zander was by no means shy, he couldn't be in his line of work but the world didn't need to know everything he'd ever done, every silly mistake where he'd been thinking with the wrong head. Zander grinned through all of Will's remarks, swallowing down more of his drink in that time to have nearly finished it when he finally set it down again to speak. "I will bet you twenty you end up in my bed eventually." He told her, grinning wickedly. He did and didn't have that high of an opinion of himself, though he certainly acted like he did. In front of a camera or walking down the catwalk, he held himself differently than when he was with his buddies, having a beer and shooting a few games of pool. He was laidback whenever they were just hanging out, having fun. He was just another regular college student. It was rare he was recognised as being a model, though his face was currently taking up space in Times Square.

Tag || willow-jae dakota holt
Words || 572
Clothes || Pretty Playboy
Music|| Say Anything --Marianas Trench
Notes || <3!

[willow-jae dakota holt]

Will only had the life she was building in New York, and she didn’t want anything to screw that up. She couldn’t lose it. It wasn’t like she was going to become a saint overnight, or at any point in her life. Her rebel streak was too strong, and she still found herself attracted to trouble more than she should ever admit. She had been mischievous as a child and it had gotten out of hand as she grew older. There was no way to cut that out of her life completely though. It would be like removing a huge part of her personality, lobotomising her to make her some docile little doll who said yes and no when they were expected of her. Willow could never be that person, no matter what other people or authorities tried and threatened her with. She was a wild flower from the hot desert, and her oil coated fingers were made to flip the bird, not embroider quaint sayings for golden frames.

There was a lot she would always be angry about; her mother’s vanishing act, the sudden death of her beloved dad, and anyone who tried to shove religion down her throat. Will just knew now that smashing up property that wasn’t hers and being a public menace was no way to go about unleashing that anger. She was still young, still hot headed and hostile when she wanted to be, but at least her housemates had her back when she was about to do something a little too stupid. They might not understand how dire the consequences might be for the tiny firecracker if she did go off the handle, but thankfully Will knew they reeled her in before it got that far. She just never planned to thank them for it and indicate that she actually liked and appreciated the idiots she lived with.

They were each notorious in their own way, and Will threatened to bring them down several pegs on a daily basis. They all had enough on each other to ruin reputations and relationships for years to come. She secretly loved it, even when she was playing pissed off and bitterly angry with them all. Will snorted just after she took a long swig from her beer, making some of the dry alcohol come spurting out of the side of her full lips as well as from her nose. She wiped her face with the sleeve of her shirt and looked at Zander with half a glare in her eyes. Unfortunately she couldn’t rid those brown irises of the amusement still lingering there. “Sorry lover, but you’re really not my type.” She blew him a kiss mockingly and then kicked her feet up onto the table in front of them, just another part of her outfit that was marked in grease from the hours spent in the garage. “Make it fifty.” Will challenged, her smirk growing wider. “And you have until the end of the year.”

• • •

TAGGED! Zander Frederick Reich!
WORDS! 505!
OUTFIT! Trouble Magnet!
LYRICS! Centuries - - - Fall Out Boy
NOTES! <3