Hope Floats
Title: Hope Floats
Fandom: VRV
Characters/Pairings: John/Tara, Jake/Theo
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All belongs to vylentcrymz and I
Note:John/Tara fluffy angst with Sandra movie titles. Yeah, no clue where it came from either.
In later years, it would come to be known as the summer of love, even though their brothers liked to call it the summer of vomit, but while it was happening, Tara and John had never felt more alive.
They were used to sneaking around. Tara had perfected the art of crawling out of her bedroom at the tender age of twelve, and had spent many a summer night, curled up in John’s arms far too innocent (or petrified) to even attempt anything else. But there was something about this place, this time; when as cheesy as it sounded, they were at a sort of crossroads in their lives.
Even Jake was changing before their very eyes, morphing into a somewhat responsible adult, and for the first time in his life, an actual boyfriend.
Tara tried not to dwell on the fact that while her brother’s love life was finally piecing itself together, hers had become even more of a trainwreck than it was before. As hard as she tried to resist them, her feelings for John were coming back with full force, and even though she kept telling herself to bottle them down deep and forget all about them, she was beginning to wonder how she would cope when they went away, John along with them.
Which is why when The Fourth of July comes around, Tara tries to spend the better part of her shift at Danny’s thinking about all the various positions John could twist her into instead of a simpler time, when the fourth meant barbeques and stolen first kisses during which sheswore her heart was pounding much louder than any fireworks. Kisses that tasted like cherry Popsicles and spearmint gum, and that mysterious taste that John always left behind on her tongue, something indescribable, but so him that she could still taste even days after going without one.
It’s easier this way, she thinks,to pretend that we were always like this. Lovers, but never friends, never anything with meaning because when you start giving things meaning, they become important. They become memorable, things that you will always look back on, rewind and play back over and over whether you want to or not.
The last thing she needs is another memory about John, she has too many already, and can honestly say that she’s stopped counting.
He takes up too much room in her head already, never letting any of the other boys with silly names have a chance to be more than just that. He’s their competitor, their judge, jury and executioner. They are weighed against him in all categories even if he is halfway across the world on a college campus studying god knows what because she’s never really asked because she resents that place more than anything else, even though she knows her own pride is to blame.
If her family has a curse, it’s pride. The Austin’s either have to little, or too much and Tara knows what her problem is.
Jake is her opposite, sure he would like you to think that he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and he damn well knows it, but Tara (and Theo) know about the shy insecure six year old lurking underneath. The one who got left behind and grew up vowing to be the one to leave. Jake wanted to be cold, untouchable like the rebel he idolized so much, a boy so perfect that he couldn’t be real.
But Jake was anything but cold and unfeeling. He felt deeper than any of them probably, an awful Pisces trait that she knew he tried to hide.
Tara never hid her feelings, never saw the point, until that one day when she should have done anything but follow her brother’s example and clammed up, letting John walk out the door and into the real world, away from her and all the places that had been theirs.
She still beat herself up over it now, even though years have passed, seasons have changed, and boyfriends and lovers alike have come and gone for both of them, but there’s something about this day, an energy in the air that has nothing to do with patriotism or free corndogs.
It takes a beer and a kiss during the grand finale before she finally realizes that it has a name.
It’s hope. And hope, unlike love, can never be lost. And maybe love, well, maybe that can be found too, even if you’ve misplaced it somewhere along the way.
Fandom: VRV
Characters/Pairings: John/Tara, Jake/Theo
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All belongs to vylentcrymz and I
Note:John/Tara fluffy angst with Sandra movie titles. Yeah, no clue where it came from either.
In later years, it would come to be known as the summer of love, even though their brothers liked to call it the summer of vomit, but while it was happening, Tara and John had never felt more alive.
They were used to sneaking around. Tara had perfected the art of crawling out of her bedroom at the tender age of twelve, and had spent many a summer night, curled up in John’s arms far too innocent (or petrified) to even attempt anything else. But there was something about this place, this time; when as cheesy as it sounded, they were at a sort of crossroads in their lives.
Even Jake was changing before their very eyes, morphing into a somewhat responsible adult, and for the first time in his life, an actual boyfriend.
Tara tried not to dwell on the fact that while her brother’s love life was finally piecing itself together, hers had become even more of a trainwreck than it was before. As hard as she tried to resist them, her feelings for John were coming back with full force, and even though she kept telling herself to bottle them down deep and forget all about them, she was beginning to wonder how she would cope when they went away, John along with them.
Which is why when The Fourth of July comes around, Tara tries to spend the better part of her shift at Danny’s thinking about all the various positions John could twist her into instead of a simpler time, when the fourth meant barbeques and stolen first kisses during which sheswore her heart was pounding much louder than any fireworks. Kisses that tasted like cherry Popsicles and spearmint gum, and that mysterious taste that John always left behind on her tongue, something indescribable, but so him that she could still taste even days after going without one.
It’s easier this way, she thinks,to pretend that we were always like this. Lovers, but never friends, never anything with meaning because when you start giving things meaning, they become important. They become memorable, things that you will always look back on, rewind and play back over and over whether you want to or not.
The last thing she needs is another memory about John, she has too many already, and can honestly say that she’s stopped counting.
He takes up too much room in her head already, never letting any of the other boys with silly names have a chance to be more than just that. He’s their competitor, their judge, jury and executioner. They are weighed against him in all categories even if he is halfway across the world on a college campus studying god knows what because she’s never really asked because she resents that place more than anything else, even though she knows her own pride is to blame.
If her family has a curse, it’s pride. The Austin’s either have to little, or too much and Tara knows what her problem is.
Jake is her opposite, sure he would like you to think that he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and he damn well knows it, but Tara (and Theo) know about the shy insecure six year old lurking underneath. The one who got left behind and grew up vowing to be the one to leave. Jake wanted to be cold, untouchable like the rebel he idolized so much, a boy so perfect that he couldn’t be real.
But Jake was anything but cold and unfeeling. He felt deeper than any of them probably, an awful Pisces trait that she knew he tried to hide.
Tara never hid her feelings, never saw the point, until that one day when she should have done anything but follow her brother’s example and clammed up, letting John walk out the door and into the real world, away from her and all the places that had been theirs.
She still beat herself up over it now, even though years have passed, seasons have changed, and boyfriends and lovers alike have come and gone for both of them, but there’s something about this day, an energy in the air that has nothing to do with patriotism or free corndogs.
It takes a beer and a kiss during the grand finale before she finally realizes that it has a name.
It’s hope. And hope, unlike love, can never be lost. And maybe love, well, maybe that can be found too, even if you’ve misplaced it somewhere along the way.