#hocstarters

[penelopeelroy]

Open | @hocstarters​ Location | Garfield Park Conservatory 

Penny had been to the conservatory once a few years ago, and she had been completely taken back by how beautiful it was. Penny always loved plants, and her and James’s apartment was decked out in them. She seemed to bring home a new one every single week. There was something so calming to her about being around beautiful plants like this. “Isn’t it beautiful? God, I would love to have this in my backyard. A greenhouse with every plant you could want? That’s the dream.”

[davidkennish]

Although David had only stopped at the mall after work to grab something for his mom for Mother’s Day, he ended up stepping into Macy’s to see if anything caught his eye. He didn’t see anything for the warmer weather, however he saw some blazers that he thought were nice for work. He tried on a navy one first, just slipping it over his button up. He needed dark, neutral colors for interpreting, so he thought this one was a good pick. He smoothed out the blazer while he looked in the mirror, then turning side to side with a grin. He was feeling pretty confident in it, though he didn’t notice someone standing near while he was modeling in the middle of the store. 

@hocstarters​

[herdarkredsouls]

“You know when you have a song just stuck in your head.” She hummed in the queue to get her morning coffee. She just couldn’t get the tune out of her mind. “I have the tune stuck in my head but i can’t quite remember what it is. If i hum it, can you work it out? It’s going to bug me all day otherwise.”  She began to hum gently, her head bopping as she did. 

@hocstarters​

[kaia-hood]

It wasn’t unusual for Kaia to go out drinking, but going out to meet a blind date? That wasn’t her norm. Still, her client claimed to have the perfect guy in mind for her and the woman tipped well, so she figured it would hurt to have a night out to make the older woman happy. What a mistake. After 40 minutes, Kaia was finally able to excuse herself to use the bathroom, to her horror, the back door was alarmed, so she couldn’t discreetly leave. Quick on her feet, she found someone sitting alone at the end of the bar and approached them. “Hi, this is going to sound crazy, but I’m on a blind date with what I can only describe as a frat-boy-alum-that-peaked-in-high-school douche bag from hell and the back door has an alarm. So, I have about 2 minutes to pretend to pee before I have to go back there. If I pay for your tab, will you come over in a few minutes with some excuse for me to leave?” She asked, and while it was a not great situation, it did give her a bit of a rush to be pulling something like this. “My client set me up with him, so I really don’t want to resort to dumbing a drink in his lap, but we’re about 10 minutes from me doing that.”

@hocstarters​

[gabby-caine]

It wasn’t the best idea to take a run late at night, but Gabrielle thought that having her dog with her was all the safety required for such a venture. Anyway, it was rare that she did so, only on nights when her mind wouldn’t quiet, even with baking. Only then would she put in her headphones, get Carlo on his leash, and run in an attempt to get it out of her head. That’s how she found herself out that night, paused at the corner on her way back towards her place, waiting to cross a few blocks away. Since she was doing her cooldown, she didn’t bother to jog in place, instead, she just stood, listening to her music. It took a few seconds before Gabby realized someone was talking to her out of the corner of her eye and she fumbled to pause her music on her phone and pull out her earbuds. “Sorry, I had my music on. What’d you say?”

@hocstarters​

[xvillanueva]

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Xyla groaned, stopping dead in her tracks, eyes focused on the colourful store front before her. Years ago, this was the location of her favourite coffee shop. She spent countless hours inside studying for exams and hanging out with her friends, snacking on pastries and indulging in what she still considered to be the best hot chocolate in the world. Now, it was reduced to nothing more than a parlour that sold the same cookies and cream ice cream you could find in the supermarket. Gross.

With a huff, Xyla turned on her heel and started down another familiar street. In the distance, she spotted a person walking with a coffee cup and she picked up the pace to catch up.

“Excuse me!” She called out, heels clicking against the pavement. “Where’d you get that? I’ve been looking for a coffee shop that isn’t Starbucks or Dunkin for ages.” @hocstarters​

[ivydunne]

✉ tinder match

Ivy: no cheesy pick up line here

Ivy: I was told this would be fun

Ivy: when does the fun start?

[dannyxrattana]

“Bonjour! Welcome in,” Iain called from behind the counter of his flower shop. He was working on an arrangement that had been ordered online, so he barely looked up to see who was there until they were almost to him. Even then, Iain waited to see if they were just browsing or genuinely needed help before deciding to approach. “If you’re looking for anything specific, you tell me, and I can either find, or make for you, ok?”

@hocstarters​