stay or leave, stay or leave

[nickbailey]

lyladonahue‌:

Rather than drag out the great debate, she figured she’d let the food do all the talking and focus on getting it ready for the true test by heating it up and further disguising the flavor with a little salt and pepper to taste. His question caught her off guard, stopping her in her tracks because she was sure she hadn’t mentioned it. Ah, Gertie. Gertie must have been the culprit. “Are you plannin’ to gloat about that too? Because I’ll have you know, it was a very traumatizing experience for me and you’re lucky that I’m alive to tell the tale of it,” she exaggerated before waving off the entire situation knowing he had enough on his plate and she didn’t want to run the risk of pulling him away from something more important. “It was in the evening on a school night, I didn’t wanna trouble you for that. Besides, it all worked itself out.”

“I’m not trying to gloat, Lyla,” Nick said. How did he make her understand? He could fix her car if he’d been asked to, he’d done it for his father’s car and the two cars the brothers all shared, all beaten up in different ways. Nick wasn’t a Heine of the mechanical Heines or anything, but he’d picked up some things from his old man. And Lyla did so much for them that the thought she felt like she couldn’t call him made him feel a dull ache. “I can joke all I want Ly, but you’re not trouble, you know that, right? It’s easy to get one of the boys to make sure Harper stays asleep and get your car taken care of. You should have called me. You can always call me.”

[nickbailey]

lyladonahue‌:

Rather than drag out the great debate, she figured she’d let the food do all the talking and focus on getting it ready for the true test by heating it up and further disguising the flavor with a little salt and pepper to taste. His question caught her off guard, stopping her in her tracks because she was sure she hadn’t mentioned it. Ah, Gertie. Gertie must have been the culprit. “Are you plannin’ to gloat about that too? Because I’ll have you know, it was a very traumatizing experience for me and you’re lucky that I’m alive to tell the tale of it,” she exaggerated before waving off the entire situation knowing he had enough on his plate and she didn’t want to run the risk of pulling him away from something more important. “It was in the evening on a school night, I didn’t wanna trouble you for that. Besides, it all worked itself out.”

“I’m not gonna gloat, Lyla, it scared me.” For someone who liked to act as if she had all of the answers all of the time, Lyla had actually just admitted to a dumb thought. “What are you talkin’ about, botherin’ me?” Nick frowned. Not that he owed her anything because she’d hate it if he put it in those terms, but really. “You bother me all the rest of the time, we just had an argument about pumpkin macaroni. You being alone in the middle of the night, that’s where you draw the line? I’d rather deal with that.” At least in that situation he’d know she was safe and wouldn’t have to worry about her ego fitting through the doors of this house if Harper actually ate the damn veggie-infiltrated mac and cheese. 

[nickbailey]

blawthorne‌:

“I can’t believe there’s a kid missin’ and this is what you care about.” Blake had no other defenses. He wasn’t used to having to defend himself so much. When he hung out with Zander or one of his drinking buddies, the conversation usually stayed in the safe zones of college football and fishing. “I’ve met her once, and I spent the whole time under the hood of her car while she insulted me. There’s nothin’ to talk about. And like you said, I wouldn’t have a shot anyway if I wanted one, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Hey don’t fuckin’ do that,” Nick said, instantly irritated. Blake had started this to distract him from thoughts of Harper, since none of his idiot brothers were texting him back. Why had he and Dad even allowed them to get phones if they weren’t gonna fuckin’ use them? Tough shit that Blake got hoisted by his own leotard or whatever. “You know what? Fuck it, the two of you? Match made in heaven, insensitive as hell.” 

[nickbailey]

angelahoward‌:

Angela had always been amused at the way Nick had tried to get her and his father together. He was a lovely man, but she wasn’t about to go out with someone just because they’d been placed together as the single parents. Slightly hypocritical, she supposed. Besides, she wouldn’t have been able to see Nick as often as she did now without it being weird.

As she listened to him speak, she reached out for the next batch of cookie dough in her hands and paused in her actions. Surprised you’re giving him a chance. Angela looked up to him with a small shrug. “Bail? That just.. don’t seem like the right word. He was visitin’ his daughter.” Without even mentioning he was leaving in the first place. “Besides, he apologised, ‘n bought me flowers, 'n attempted to make some muffins.” She chuckled, before grinning softly. “I like him, Nick. Don’t everyone deserve a second chance at some point?”

Bailing wasn’t a second chance kind of thing, to Nick, but Angela clearly saw it differently. Visiting his daughter seemed like a good enough reason to do anything, honestly, and Nick wasn’t gonna fault a parent for actually giving a crap about their kids. More people should have done that and didn’t, so it felt wrong to not give Holden the benefit of the doubt here. 

Psych 101 seven years ago had taught him he was projecting; Nick sighed and straightened. “Good.” He stuck his hand into the bowl of dough on the island, scooping some onto his fingers. “Why would he make you muffins when you know how to make muffins? And why would he do it badly?” 

[nickbailey]

blawthorne‌:

“Yeah, I’ve already felt the headache, which is exactly why I don’t want a chance.” He wasn’t sure why he felt so defensive. Usually he could take Nick’s bullshit on the chin, but tonight he was getting under his skin. He told himself it was just because of the tension of being forced together with no choice in whether or not to leave. “Listen, I don’t… You’re so full of shit. Whatever. Let’s talk about your love life then. See how you like it.”

Nick wasn’t trying to create an argument or anything, but this conversation had taken such a turn and he’d literally never seen Blake so full of shit. He was acting like Adam when Adam pretended not to be into his chem lab partner when everyone in the family could see the two kids head over heels for each other. Never mind that his brother’s crush had the same name as him. 

“You’re so full of shit. There’s nothing to talk about my love life,” Nick said. He’d have laughed if he wasn’t so annoyed, he hated when people tried to lie to him as if he was an idiot. “I’m not a fucking moron, you just admitted we were talking about your love life. You think Lyla’s part of your love life? Just admit you’re into Lyla, man, so you can get over it.” 

[nickbailey]

noahmsimmons‌:

Noah watched his friend as he examined the barn with a smile on his face. He loved watching his friends talk about their passions and seeing that glow on their face with the sparkle in their eye. “Money would be nice.” Noah wasn’t the richest, but he was comfortable. “But it would be a cool spot just to bring people and chill, you know? The usual stops in town can get repetitive and what if people don’t wanna be seen…” He paused, realizing what he was saying. “You know, just another spot to hang.”

Like a hangout spot. But they could charge for entry. Nick surveyed the place; it looked solid enough, but what if there was mold or termites? They’d have to get someone to come in and check it out, but maybe he could just...YouTube it. Besides, all of this wouldn’t even matter if the place actually belonged to someone, so he’d have to check county records. 

Even so, his heart was racing; this was a whole project that Noah had just dropped into his lap, with so much potential. They could have a few different rooms, some outdoor areas— it would take months, years to put it together and get the money to put it together. And it couldn’t be as easy as an abandoned property just... Here. 

But what if it was? “We need to check the county records. But there’s a lot we can do ourselves. Like an outdoor patio over there, some shit people can put on Pinterest or Instagram or whatever and wanna keep coming back to. And then a couple of different rooms and some funky stairs, is there an upstairs? Let’s go see. Dude. This is nuts.”

[nickbailey]

sophiegarett‌:

@nickbailey​

The park situated near the town square was just a quaint and picturesque as the rest of Frostford. Sophie had only been in town two days (of which were spent moving into her studio apartment) and today was the day she would search for her ‘long lost’ half-brother. Granted, him kindly telling her to not bother coming to Frostford and that he wanted nothing to do with her made that fairly challenging. But Sophie was convinced she could change his mind once she found him. She relied on his social media check-ins to try and find places he frequented, hoping to ‘lovingly ambush’ him.

She sat on the bench, frowning, trying to refresh her phone. Service in the park was shoddy and she couldn’t load his posts. “No wonder rent here is so cheap,” she grumbled, raising her phone up. “You need smoke signals to communicate.”

Reading a book in public when he was supposed to be watching his sister maybe wasn’t the best thing to do. He could tell himself he was paying attention to Harper all he wanted, but even though he looked up every few minutes, Nick still hadn’t noticed that an entire human had sat down at the other end of the park bench. She couldn’t have been there more than three or four minutes, since he didn’t go that long without checking on Harper— she was with her friends and so many of their parents were, too.

“Sorry?” Nick said, looking up from his book. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. He figured it was more for people who cared too much and needed to not do that, as opposed to people who didn’t care at all (like him), and needed to tone down just how aware they were of it. “This is Alabama, not the island from that Tom Hanks movie.” 

[nickbailey]

angelahoward‌:

It was always lovely catching up with Nick. Angela had always had a soft spot for him, ever since he was younger, in the way that meant he was like a son to her. Over the years, she’d helped him out as much as she could, and she only hoped he knew just how much she appreciated him being around. So instead of going out into town, she’d invited him to come over and help her bake for the local school as a means of raising money for her charity. After all, she could use all the help she could get.

“So uh,” she began, placing the first batch of cookies into her oven. “What do you do on dates?” Angela looked over to where her next ingredients lay, before clearing her throat. “Real weird question, but.. I ain’t been on one in years, ‘n I won’t lie, I’m kinda nervous.” @nickbailey​

His dad, clearly, had missed his chance. Life didn’t wait for people, Samson, someone needed to tell him. Harper was at a playdate, thankfully, because he’d already allowed her too much sugar this week and he doubted the pediatrician would be offering the kids any supremely unhealthy foods. Angela’s kitchen would have shot his methods of curbing Harper’s sugar intake to Hell. 

Nick also couldn’t talk about dating in front of his sister; that seemed wrong. “You’re asking the wrong person,” Nick said. “I used to just do what Maddie wanted to do and I don’t think she thought I was a very good boyfriend. Everyone’s nervous, I’m sure he’s nervous, too. Surprised you’re giving him a chance, though,” Nick said, grabbing a grape from the fruit bowl and popping it in his mouth. “Didn’t he bail?”

[nickbailey]

avalynncartwright‌:

Ava Lynn had tried to learn that she no longer needed to shop for the two of them, that the frozen wings and other party snacks no longer needed to find their way into her cart. Alongside the frozen foods were bottles upon bottles of wine and by the time that she stopped at the end of the line, she was bored beyond belief.

Her fingers itched for the glossy pages of a tabloid magazine, she could almost feel the photo spreads beneath her finger. It was in that moment, of boredom and exhaustion that she made eye contact with a familiar face, her lips setting into a comfortable frown, nose drawing itself into a sneer.

“I don’t suppose you ever could, darling,” she answered, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips despite herself.

The ‘darling’ sounded like nails on a chalkboard to him, some tiny blonde slip of a thing out here being condescending. How someone half his height could still try and look down on him, Nick didn’t know, but he figured her toes must hurt. “I’m not trying to be rude, but do we know each other or something? I’m not used to strangers’ havin’ an opinion of me already.” Not like she looked fully put together or anything herself; at least Nick had vegetables in his cart instead of just frozen pizza and wine. Rude girl party of one, apparently. 

[nickbailey]

noahmsimmons‌:

“Possibly.” Noah mulled over the possibilities the barn could be. He hadn’t thought about what it could be seriously. He just found it and came out here to think. Nick was actually the first person he showed his discovery. “What is that big head thinking about?” Noah grinned teasingly at his friend as he looked at the other. “I’m willing to share the space if you have an idea.”

“Dude I have so many fuckin’ ideas right now.” He felt a rush of creativity and something like hope fill him as he looked at the place. “There’s so much we could do with it, like it could be a space for us to do whatever we wanted here, you know? I mean we’d need some money.” Everything needed money, unfortunately, and it was the barrier to all dreams. “But if you’re down to use your hands we could actually do something with this place. Or we could figure out a way to make money out of it.” 

[nickbailey]

ofkelsi‌:

@ofkelsi​

kelsi had expected to leave the classroom earlier than usual that day.  her normal time of leaving was around four thirty, or even five.  she liked to tidy up the classroom, make sure her notes for the next day were readily available, and that she wrote down her thoughts on how the day went in her little logbook.  but today had been a day of nothing much, so she’d almost been out the door.  at least, until jasmine’s parents showed up and kelsi had been wrapped into a whole conversation–the parents thanking her for all the work she’d done that day, and for how excited their little girl was about the class pet and their newest coloring unit.  

they’d just left, and kelsi had collapsed back into her chair with a loud sigh, her arms draping over the sides of the chair as she leaned backwards.  kelsi turned around in the chair when she saw nick and she grinned.  “hey.”  she stood up from the chair and looked at the little box he was holding.  “oh, did a little birdie tell you it was my birthday or something?  you didn’t have to come all the way here and bring this, y’know.”

“Big birdie, actually,” Nick said, raising his eyebrows and shrugging. “Every time you do something for the class, Harper conveniently mentions only what you did for her. My brother was the one who told us it was your birthday, so this is like a- family thank you.” Hopefully that made it less weird that he’d brought this, which wasn’t actually as casual a gesture as he’d wanted it to be when he’d walked over here. There was that discomfort again. “You did a lot for the kids today, and Harper all the time, so I figured this was like a nice thing I could do. I just didn’t think you’d be dressed like... cake. It’s not weird for cake to eat cake, right?” 

He held the container out to her, not really knowing what to say about it. Cute costume? It was, of course, very pretty and creative and logistically confusing to him, which— “How did you build that?” Nick asked, brows furrowing. “I’m trying to figure out the structure. How’s it holding together?” 

[nickbailey]

blawthorne‌:

Meeting Nick had been great in some ways. Blake felt more at home, being around someone who reminded him so much of one of his siblings, and helping out the Bailey’s gave him a sense of purpose in what had otherwise become an incredibly unmoored life since Emily left. But unfortunately, adopting Nick as a sibling also meant he could be just as annoying as Hunter or Molly. “Relax, I don’t want a chance. I’m good.” He was quick to defend himself. “There’s no use talkin’ about this kid that’s runnin’ around lost somewhere, so we might as well change the subject. Just the first thing I thought of.”

“Sounds like you want a chance and it’s on your mind,” Nick said bluntly. He was a sharp shooter, he didn’t have the time or the energy to be otherwise. And he didn’t have it in him to support Blake through falling for Lyla and talkin’ about how shiny her hair was or whatever and having to listen to Lyla talk about how crazy it was that Blake ever had a chance. He loved them both, but that was... Not gonna happen. A disaster waitin’ to happen from a mile away. “First thing you thought of to distract us was Lyla Donahue. I love her, she’s like my sister, but she’s a headache and a half, my guy.” 

[nickbailey]

lyladonahue‌:

She had to try to hide the smirk on her face as she laid her belongings back on the counter, not because she felt like she’d just won an argument, but because her plan was still in action. Truthfully, even if Harper did end up hating it, Nick was about the only person she’d admit defeat to anyway. “I’ll let you gloat all you want, maybe even let you bring it up in the future if it fails too.” It was all a steep order, but she wasn’t about to skirt over a certain comment either. “What’s got you on edge? Spill it all while I heat this up.”

It was like Lyla hadn’t even wanted to leave, she just wanted Nick to give her the barest indication that he’d wanted her to stay. This was a hurricane of a woman, except she did the opposite of what a hurricane did. That didn’t make sense as a thought, Nick knew, but sometimes it felt like Lyla just swirled in, and fixed the destruction she could in a hurry before she left again. He’d started to depend on her, and if he got rid of the guilt, it felt okay. He just could rarely get rid of the guilt. “Oh trust me, I’ll gloat,” Nick told her, crossing his arms. “You think I’m not gonna gloat over knowing the pickiest eater on this planet? We gotta take our wins however they come, Lyla. Speaking of,” and ignoring her question entirely, Nick asked instead, “What’s this about your car failing and you not callin’ me?”

[nickbailey]

fionabalestrieu‌:

“Didn’t say it wasn’t fun, Bailey,” Fiona waggled her eyebrows at the boy; an amused lilt of a laugh falling off her lips as she shoved a whole forkful of pie into her mouth. “It’s just not as fun as dress up with Harper… I mean, unless you plan on letting me doll you up like a damn Barbie?”  She just gave him a playful sort of wink before bumping her shoulder against his with a sigh; not moving an inch once she was leaned up against him. “My mama might kill me if she finds out I spent the whole afternoon eating pie, but I certainly can’t argue with that logic, can I? Throw in a pretty dress and one of Harp’s feather boas, and I’d call this a perfect afternoon.” 

Nick almost choked. “Me? Dress up like Barbie? Nah. Dressin’ up isn’t really my thing.” He felt itchy and uncomfortable, boxy, every time he wore a suit. 

Not that a Barbie dress was a suit, but Nick figured it would be a lot worse, feelings-wise. He looked at her, completely in his personal space, and sighed. He should have been used to it by now— Fiona and Lyla, both overwhelming in the way they showed they cared. Nick had different ways of showing his comfort levels. Also, he wasn’t particularly comfortable knowing if he moved just to stretch, or if he sneezed, she probably couldn’t keep her balance. 

“Aren’t all of your dresses pretty,” Nick asked. He didn’t move, figuring he should probably let her lean on him because he leaned on her all the time. Just metaphorically, so she didn’t have to worry about all hundred and something pounds of him leading to her getting scoliosis or whatever. “Isn’t that why your mom doesn’t want you to have a whole pie for lunch?” 

[pedrospascaled]

[nickbailey]

@avalynncartwright​

Grocery shopping was an art. Ben cut the coupons, he always found the best ones. Cam watched Harper at home, and Nick and Adam went through the store to get everything. They always split up, put on invisible blinders, only grabbed what they needed, and met back up at checkout. Once a week, every Tuesday at noon when the store would be emptiest so they could get what they needed and get out. 

Except today, Mr. Adam Oliver Bailey was sick in bed, and Nick was ready to kill him if the flu didn’t take him when it left. One cart, shopping for six people, just him and his two hands. He had a tight budget, small window of time, and very short rope. If even one cart blocked his way today, so help him God, Nicholas would turn into Satan and cause a ruckus. 

He didn’t want to, couldn’t be one of the reckless Bailey boys who didn’t know how to behave when their father wasn’t around, and what was Samson Bailey doin’ with those boys and that adorable little girl anyway if he couldn’t take care of them and— 

None of that happened. Thankfully. Just a longer than usual line at one of the two checkout counters open, and Nick stuck trying to unload the weekly haul. In between lifting cereal boxes onto the conveyor belt, he caught the eye of the blonde standing behind him. Odd. 

He knew this one didn’t he? 

He squinted at her, stopping with the cereal box in hand. “Can I help you?”

[nickbailey]

Ben, within five minutes of picking up Harper, had informed the rest of them not only what a good brother he was, but how nice he’d been to Harper’s teacher when he’d met her. Harper already couldn’t stop talking about her personalized goody bag and how much love her teacher had showered upon her specifically (though Nick had a feeling it was the whole class) and how sweet Miss Phillips was and how, of course, it was her birthday. 

Birthdays meant something if you were lucky, so Nick had quickly grabbed a slice of cake from the bakery and a cup of coffee before heading to the elementary school to offer a quick thank you/happy birthday combo. At the bakery, this had seemed like a great idea. He’d get in good with the teacher, stay up to date on his kid’s progress, and make sure that Ms. Philips knew their family was involving and caring. The Baileys weren’t going to let things slide through the cracks, not this school year. 

Except as he got closer to the school, that little voice in his head got louder. And then Harper’s classroom was right in front of him, and Nick realized she probably wasn’t going to be there since kindergarten let out a full twenty-two minutes ago.  

He tapped on the door and opened it, fully surprised to find a set of parents right next to the door, about to walk out. “Hi,” Nick said, nodding at them as they smiled and walked past him. Beyond them, to the birthday girl, Nick smiled. He hadn’t planned on it, but he looked from her to the plastic box in his hand, holding it up. “Huh, look at that. Cake.” He pointed to her. “I brought cake for the birthday...cake...”

@ofkelsi​