eat your heart out

piper sterling, 27, resident of Coral Reef, artist and florist at the Green Thumb. Long Beach, CA ✈ Eastcliff, MA I'm on a boat mothafucka, don't you ever forget.

[midnightcelebs]

[kit-oriley-blog]

He stood to toss the napkins in the trash and wiped his hands on his jeans without really thinking. Not that it mattered, they were basically wrecked already, and he smiled up at the stranger even as Angel slid to the opposite side of the booth from the woman.

“Don’t tell her she’s cute, she already knows it.” He said, knowing Angel tended to be nervous around strange women. “But, um, thank you. For your help, and the compliment.” God, he was losing the ability to speak to anyone but other firefighters and children. He really needed to get out more.

[piperamelia-blog]

     Piper grinned over at the kid, unable to help her reaction. “Dude, it’s no problem, really. In a world full of people who wouldn’t help, there’s gotta be a few people who still would.” She didn’t really mean to sound like she was making herself sound good for doing a nice thing, but she’d seen so many shitty people just walk away from little good deeds, it was an important fact to distinguish. Not necessarily that she was good, but that good people still existed, in general.

     “Do you want me to keep an eye out on her while you go get her a new drink? Or I could, if you wanna tell me what she had. Either or,” Piper offered, smiling at the man. “I’m Piper, by the way.”

[rcsilience]

Vi couldn’t help but sigh in relief as she spotted Piper up ahead. If Rocko was going to run into anyone on the beach, she was certainly glad it was a friend and not some weird stranger. She smiled up at the blonde and watched happily as Bandit as well as Rocko took off towards the water and down the sand of the beach. Vi could see an empty spot up ahead on the beach.

“Hey, wanna go sit and try not to die from heat exhaustion?” She laughed, only half-serious. The other half of her was serious as hell. Summer was her least favorite season. As most would expect, her favorite time of the year was that little period of time between October and November. Dark, cold, orange and red everywhere. It was fabulous. “I swear, I can’t wait to be able to wear real pants again. I’m sick of this shorts weather shit man.”

[piperamelia-blog]

     “Yeah, I’m so down for that!” Piper cheered in agreement, happy to run into her friend. Plus, if she were honest, Bandit was wearing her out today with all his excitement, so the fact that Rocko was here was just a free pass for her to let them run around together while the puppy parents chilled out on the beach. Sounds like the best possible way this day could have turned out, really.

     Following Viola up to the spot she had been mentioning, Piper plopped down in a shady area under the pier, close enough that they could still see and call to their dogs if need be. They were both pretty obedient, which was good for times like this. “I love the heat, but man... I’m sick of it right about now. As much as I adore the beach weather, it’s time for some leggings.” She laughed, wiggling her toes in the sand. “How’ve you been, girl?”

[piperamelia-blog]

TEXT MESSAGE → UNKNOWN

MAVIS: i think you've got the wrong number, honey.

MAVIS: is everything okay though ??

PIPER: shit! I'm sorry! yeah, I'm on a terrible date right now.

PIPER: oh god, I hope this number isn't the date's number... because awkward.

[piperamelia-blog]

TEXT MESSAGE → LINA

LINA: oh god are you for real

LINA: i thought you might've been out on a shitty date and you needed saving?? tHANK GOD

LINA: if you think i'm buying ben and jerry's you've got another thing coming

LINA: ... what flavor?

PIPER: i did need that but i managed to escape and now the emergency has been transferred to ice cream

PIPER: ...half baked.

[kit-oriley-blog]

Kiernan hadn’t been expecting her to react quite so strongly, but he was grateful for the help. Especially as Angel was no help, sitting back in her seat with a squeal, lest the cold liquid touch any part of her. 

“Thank you so much.” He said to the woman as he started mopping at the mess. “I mean, you don’t have to help. I don’t want to interrupt your meal.” This wasn’t exactly a great restaurant, but he figured that only made it more desirable not to be interrupted. Only people with kids or in a hurry came to fast food for breakfast.

[piperamelia-blog]

     Piper sopped up the liquid with the bunch of napkins in her hand before tossing them in the garbage nearby. “No problem, dude,” she replied casually, shrugging her shoulders a little. Piper was a woman of many emotions, and showcasing them all in a three minute roller-coaster was one of her talents.

     “You’re totally fine, I’m in no rush anyway. How cute is this little one? I’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose.” Looking over at his breakfast partner, Piper smiled brightly, happy just to see a kid hanging out with her dad. If that’s who he was to her, anyway. Even if she didn’t have any, she liked children, and helping someone with a child warmed her heart a little.

[piperamelia-blog]

TEXT MESSAGE → LINA

LINA: i thought it was the corn emoji? corn... pineapple. basically the same thing, right? they both look the same. green and yellow. textured. one's a fruit, the other's a veg. y'know. easily confused. we can change it? pineapples. pineapples mean help me. okay. done.

LINA: wai t what's wrong? what do you need help with? do i need to insert a knife emoji? (is that too much?) (pineapples)

LINA: piper?

PIPER: i'm out of ice cream, is that deserving of the pineapple help signal?

PIPER: because tbh it is to me

[kit-oriley-blog]

Kiernan smelled like smoke. Then again, he always smelled like smoke. Especially when he’d just gotten off a twelve hour shift involving two kitchen fires and a kid who wanted to be cool and prove it by lighting a dumpster on fire. He was ready to go home and take a very hot shower, then go to bed forever.

But Angel had insisted getting breakfast when he picked her up, and there honestly was very little that the little girl couldn’t get him to do when it came down to it. Which was why he was sitting in McDonald’s, smelling like smoke, with more than a little bit of ash smeared across his shirt. If he’d been a bit more awake, he might have been able to stop Angel’s drink before it spilled. But he didn’t, and now there was a sticky mess all over the table, and he only had one napkin. He twisted around in his seat to address the person behind them. “Hey, do you have any napkins?”

[piperamelia-blog]

     Piper wouldn’t call herself a health nut, by any stretch of her imagination, but she typically avoided McDonald’s for obvious unhealthy reasons. There were better options out there, but sometimes... nothing is better than a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel bright and early in the morning. Paired with an iced mocha coffee, of course. There’s something about indulging that made Piper feel so warm and fuzzy inside, the bagel doing everything right for her taste buds this morning. She was so into enjoying this small indulgence however, that she hadn’t even paid attention to the spill happening next to her. 

     Not that it was her job, but Piper, being a former server, always had a quick response time when it came to spills. As if every stranger’s misfortune was suddenly her responsibility, she was always the good Samaritan that jumped on helping someone else out with things like that. So, when the man turned around to ask for assistance, Piper felt a sting of guilt in her stomach, replacing the warm sensation caused by the delicious food.

     “Yikes, oh my go-sh!” Piper reacted, hopping up from her small table, censoring her words in the presence of a child. She quickly cupped her hands around her napkin dispenser, popping in both sides ( like a skilled former food service employee ) and opening the device so she could grab a handful instead of one at a time. Taking a stack, Piper handed the man some, while simultaneously squatting down to help clean up the mess.

[piperamelia-blog]

TEXT MESSAGE → UNKNOWN

DEIRDRE: Hey, if anyone's the pumpkin angel, it's you. I'm obviously too obscure to enjoy pumpkin anything.

DEIRDRE: JK obviously we're still on for PSL when it comes back. Praise be.

DEIRDRE: Why pineapples, love? You okay?

PIPER: PSL THOUGH why did you have to mention that?

PIPER: terrible date sos

[cohensmalls]

     Why am I here? Seriously what the hell am I doinghere? Well, he had an answer to that hours ago – grabbinga beer with his friend, but of course she cancelled on him because Netflix wasapparently ‘calling her name’. Damn you,Johnson. The weird part is… he hasn’t left yet. Instead, he continues toorder drinks, tossing back shots of fireball without even caring that it’sprobably burning a hole in some sort of vital organ (fingers crossed that itdoes!). He was beginning to realize that watching these drunken strangers embarrassthemselves on stage felt like looking onto a car accident. It’s terrible, and the last thing you everwant to do is look… but you’re compelled to, anyways. He couldn’t look away,but instead circled his finger in the air to let the bartender know he’d likeanother.

     This scene wasn’t really him. Bars in general were neversomething he spent too much time in. The place smelled like stale beer andpeanuts and he never got drunk enough to enjoy the company around him. He wasalways that asshole every bartender hates and tries to escape as he drones onabout the most pointless things tothem. Shit, they probably thought he was lonely as hell. Well, he is, but they didn’t need to know that.Finally getting some sense, he grabs at his jacket and goes to stand but afamiliar voice brings his eyes to the stage. Oh lord. Things just gotinteresting. He sees Piper – most likely tipsy (or… sober, he can never tellwith her), and he begins to smile mischievously. Before anyone could bravelyvolunteer to go up with her, he couldn’t help but to suddenly yell out in adeep tone to grab her attention, “Get off the stage!”

[piperamelia-blog]

      Giving up wasn’t in Piper’s nature. So, when no one else was brave enough to join her on stage, she had just decided she was in this by herself. Index finger bouncing off of her plump bottom lip, using it as a trampoline that was supposed to skyrocket her sober brain into picking a song for her drunk brain to perform. Yeah, that was right. Not sing. Not lip sync. Perform. This was a full body experience for Piper, and this full body was about to do some sort of gyrating on this stage, depending on what genre of music she chose.

     Of course, some asshole had to yell a negative ass comment at her. Squinting past the dim limelight to see which asshole she was going to have to fight tonight, her eyes landed on a familiar bushel of hair and scruff, the culprit of the peanut gallery. Cohen. Of fucking course it was him. A big, drunken smile plastered on her face before she gripped the microphone. “Listen here, Smalls. Surpass your name stereotype! Be a big man and join me. Or, are you too scared of a little karaoke?” Luckily, the rest of the audience didn’t seem to be with him, cheering Piper on in her rebuttal. She wasn’t really sure this was going to work, considering she knew Cohen and he wasn’t really the type to come in a bar, much less sing in one. But was that going to stop her? Absolutely not. Piper even went as far to gesture an imaginary rope, spinning in the air before lassoing around Cohen, then pretended to drag him towards her. She pretended to struggle, as if he was very heavy and pulling him wasn’t an easy task. “Coh-en! Coh-en!” She began to chant, in hopes the audience would join her. Much to her delight, they did. This was gonna be good.

[panashaa]

[piperamelia-blog]

TEXT MESSAGE → UNKNOWN

DEIRDRE: I thought our code word for help me was "mongoose"??

DEIRDRE: Have I been using the wrong code this whole time? That explains so much...

PIPER: d my sweet lil pumpkin angel

PIPER: pineapple is the second code, it's fine

[rcsilience]

Her home by the beach was relaxing enough and Viola was nosy so the two went hand in hand when she could literally look out her window to see who was sitting in the sand today. A couple of grandmas, some people with dogs, and the occasional hot bod emerging from the water. God, they didn’t look that when I was in high school. 

Her German shepherd, Rocko, was practically scratching through the door and Viola gave in, opening one of the French doors that led to a footpath, her own mini-private walkway to the beach. Before leaving, the brunette grabbed her keys, sunglasses, and a couple toys for the dogs as well shoving her phone into her back pocket before padding her way down to the sand, barefoot.

The sun was beating down, the Massachusetts summer weather was something she never particularly was a fan of. Her tank top was already clinging to her skin and so were her shorts but that was the norm. Unfortunately, the sun seemed to ignite a wild side in Rocko and she could see him circling someone up ahead. With a resigned sigh, Viola half-jogged up to the poor person to try and wiggle her dog away from them. “Rocko! Sorry, it’s the sun. He’s been in the house all day and once he gets outside, he gets a little wild.”

[piperamelia-blog]

     Piper was in the middle of walking her Australian Shepherd, Bandit, on North Beach. Well, really, Bandit was walking her, considering she was just behind him while he dragged her to various spots he deemed worthy of interest. He was her favorite, human or otherwise, so she allowed this kind of behavior from him sometimes. He just got really excited on the beach, and she wasn’t about to put a damper on that.

     When another dog ran up to them, Piper immediately recognized the pup as being familiar. “Rocko?” She asked with an excited grin, her hand wiggling above his head, back and forth between his ears to pet him. Running her hand around his neck, she hooked her finger into his collar loop so she could pull it up and confirm the dog was who she thought he was. “Aw, hey Rocko! Where’s your mother?” Piper asked him, as if he could reply. He was too excited to see his pal Bandit, clearly, because the two of them were just playing and rough-housing when Viola ran up to them. “Dude, hey! It’s totally cool, you know I love lil Rocko.”

[calliopediaz-blog]

Calliope had heard of still life before, of course. They got an A in Art, but it wasn’t as though they believed that ‘still life’ was a thing. As in a physical thing that people did outside of a classroom. To them, it was just make-believe nonsense used to give you a grade. “Hm.” To this, Calliope paid more attention; scanning across the mangoes with bright brown eyes, studying each one as they did so. “That one, the one in the top centre.” A finger reached out, accusatory to the fruit. If the fall was able to be embodied in shades of a fruit, they believed that this one would be the best representative. Hues matched oak tree leaves, though the soft brown that was often promised to signify the coming of winter was absent, abandoning the fruit to leave it just on the verge of ripe. Just on the brink of being able to remain fresh, be edible, remain perfect. “I’d suggest using it quickly though; the colours will alter and become brown and it won’t be quite so perfect soon.”

[piperamelia-blog]

     “I need a few of them, actually,” Piper replied, a small smile on her lips. “Since it’s for purely aesthetic reasons, I can just toss one if it spoils, but since I’m painting, I’ll likely be done with it after just a day.” The girl didn’t really feel the need to explain, but this person was being so nice to her, so making small talk seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Plus, Piper was nice (to an extent), so the fact that they were being nice to her spoke volumes in return. “Man, mangoes must be the hot topic today,” she commented just as some other person decided to shove past her to grab one of the fruits, no apology or polite remark accompanying their rude actions. “Wow, did you see that?” She sort of scoffed, the action further reminding her that not everyone was as nice as them.  

[piperamelia-blog]

TEXT MESSAGE → UNKNOWN

SERA: This is definitely a wrong number, love.

SERA: You aren't about to drive, are you?

SERA: what's your sos though?

PIPER: no driving

PIPER: first of all are you a real perosn or a robot

PIPER: secondly i'm on a bad date

PIPER: hopefuly you aren't the date?? that woudl be so FUNNY THOUgh

[piperamelia-blog]

TEXT MESSAGE → UNKNOWN

SERA: I don't know anything about pineapples....

SERA: Who is this?

SERA: And what kind of help do you need?

PIPER: pineapples are the sos fruit

PIPER: did you jsut 'new number who dis' me?

PIPER: oh this is the wrong numbner isn't it? i'm drink

[carolinacollado]

You’re not meant to remember the first time you get drunk. Really drunk. Where it’s a shot down the back of the throat, and then another, and then an hour passes and then it’s morning– and you taste like dehydration and lime seeds. Can’t get the stench of Vodka out of your scalp when you finally get up to take a shower. You’re not meant to remember anything, not the first time. But she could remember it– she could remember the way it felt holding his hand. The way his eyes looked a little too small, and his kisses tasted like Jim and Coke. Cold teeth. But now, fourth Vodka Raspberry down the pipe, Lina was remembering the cocktail parties. Business, he said. Standing at his arm like a trophy wife– (hah! Wife!) and the arguments that ensued when she slipped off the heels at home, and pulled down the pantyhose. 

Were you meant to mix different types of alcoholic beverages? Lina wasn’t sure– or, she was, but that was one thing she couldn’t remember. A glass of bubbly in hand, now, sitting cross-legged at the bar. She’d never experienced Saturday night karaoke at Salty Dogs before – this was the first time back in town, back home, since Lina had been of legal drinking age. It wasn’t looking so good – a man screeching Kung Fu Fighting into the microphone. A round of cleared throats and silent applause once it was over, and a blonde clicking her heels on stage. Lina blinked at the feedback that pierced her ears. She took her wine glass and her expensive dress (yeah, wow, she was shocked Biff let her keep it, too) up to the stage at the offer of a duet. Lina was a musician. She wasn’t a singer, but– classical music– and she could harmonise, okay? And she was sure she could probably “do better” (Biff’s words) than anybody else in the bar, right? 

Wine, confident. Vodka, messy. Jim and Coke, sad. 

“Alright, honey. Since U Been Gone, or some P!nk if you’re feelin’ frisky. So What, or I’m outta here.” Lina drawled, one hand wrapped around the neck of her wine glass, the other gripping the blonde’s forearm for upright (and emotional) support.

[piperamelia-blog]

7 MONTHS AGO

     To say she was relieved when someone actually answered her call was an understatement. Even if sober Piper was just as outgoing as drunk Piper was, neither of them particularly enjoyed being rejected, so the brunette joining her on stage made her feel better about kicking Kung Fu Karaoke off stage. She didn’t have terrible taste in karaoke choices either, Piper decided, approving of the girl’s song choices immediately. Tipping her glass towards her in a bit of a sloppy ‘cheers’ to let her know she was a fan, Piper clicked to the very front of the stage, squatting to perch her half-empty glass on the far edge, only after taking a big ‘good luck’ swig first. A little bit of liquid courage to get her though, it seemed.

      There was no way Piper knew how to communicate which choice to the DJ, so she just kind of made eye contact with him and did a little head-nod, hoping the message would come across that he could pick whatever song he wanted and she’d rock it. In hopes he was paying attention to the other woman’s suggestions, Piper was happy to hear ‘So What’ begin to blare over the speakers in the bar. That familiar intro tune was all Piper needed to get into character, easily accepting this stranger into her new power karaoke girl band.

           “Na na na na na na.”

     Following those effortlessly, Piper began rocking her body back and forth, the alcohol warming her body and activating the good dancer deep down in her somewhere. Since there were two microphones, she fell into one, hands gripping the top (in an attempt to be sexy) as she sang the first verse. Her favorite part was the chorus, that was where she really shined. 

           “I wanna start a fight!” She cheered, unhooking the microphone from its stand so she could sing and jump up and down at the same time. This started a little fight between her drunken Bambi legs and her heels, but it was totally fine. She could handle a little weebling and wobbling, and you wanna know why? She was no longer Piper. Piper has left the building. She...she was P!nk now. That was a thing.

     Or at least, she thought she was. “So, so what? I’m still a rock star! I got my rock moves!” Piper shouted (no one would call it singing), one of her hands waving around in the air like the wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man, or something. The alcohol was definitely hitting her, and in her mind, she was killing it. Her and this girl, the other half of her girl band, they were rocking it, she thought. In reality, they weren’t doing half-bad, not nearly as terrible as Kung Fu Karaoke, and there were even some cheers from the audience. She’d consider that a win.