Holding Back • •

[Imogen Katelyn Rose Lancaster]

Imogen hadn’t anticipated how hard things might remain once she moved to New York. Obviously, she had thrown away the support system that she had had her whole life in LA and moved to a city where she knew only one person. If anyone were to call her foolish then they may be right, but Imogen wasn’t about to pack up and move back to the place where she was born or even let the people there know where she was. This move hadn’t been as impulsive as people might think and Imogen had made sure to cover all of her tracks before she arrived in the city that never slept. She had put a down payment on her apartment, made sure to sort out the change in doctors and checked several times that she could stay there without needing to make a phone call home because she had lived up to the blonde stereotype and had forgotten something.

Still, it wasn’t like she could run from everything she had done in the past though. She was nine weeks pregnant and it would only be a few more before the clothes grew tight and it started to become painfully obvious to the people and the strangers around her. Other secrets she could keep, but not this one. Her eyes were already straying to the baby clothes and toys when she went shopping and a small pile of pregnancy magazine and books had started to appear on the cluttered desk where she did most of her work in her spacious apartment. The initial shock had faded now for the young blonde, but there was still a lot to come and still to go through and they were all things that she would need support with. In New York, there was only one person able to offer her that at the moment, if the news didn’t shock her into running away or anything. She sent Fallon a text that morning once another small article had been sent off and she’d taken in the two orders on the site that had seemingly been placed overnight.

Imogen sighed as she looked into her wardrobe, knowing that her days of wearing most of the garments were numbered, but luckily she favoured baggy shirts over skin tight ones, so she had her fingers crossed that she might be able to avoid some of the maternity clothes for a little longer than most if her stomach did start to swell over the next few weeks. Ready for another day, Imogen checked her phone, eyes scanning the reply before quickly typing out another response to send to her old high school friend. Like most, they had only drifted apart because of college and now Imogen hoped that they could go back to being as close as they were when they were eighteen. It wasn’t just because of the dramatic turn of events that had shaken her life up either. Imogen genuinely missed the fun they had together and the days when they could just hang out without needing to reschedule several times before they actually were able to sit down and have a cup of coffee together.

She was still coming to terms with New York and finding her way around the vast city, but Imogen knew where several places were already since she had an overly friendly neighbour who kept reminding her of great places to eat and sightsee. She told Fallon to meet her at the Central Park gardens and grabbed her bag, throwing her phone and keys into it once the apartment was locked up and Pippa was set for an afternoon without her owner there to entertain her. They could grab lunch along the way if they fancied it, but Imogen needed to burn off some of this anxiety with a walk first. She knew her friend wouldn’t disown her entirely if she told her the truth, but she also couldn’t stop worrying about what she might say.

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• • •

TAGGED! Fallon <3
WORDS! 700 exactly! x
OUTFIT! Fashionable Mess
LYRICS! Glitz and Glamour - - The Cab
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Fallon Alexandra Flynn]

Fallon had been home with nothing more than grading planned for the day. She didn’t want to have her graduating students leave without getting their work back. She’d had a teacher who took months upon months to get the graded work back into her students’ hands. It had annoyed Fallon to no end and had promised herself she would not be that professor to her own students. She was working her way through one of the first scripts when she received her friend’s text. If it were nearly any other day, she would have had to rain check but since it was her free day and she really had nothing more than grading to do, she sent a quick message back saying she’d be there as soon as she knew where there was with a winky face.

With that done, she finished off the script she was reading, made some notes and set both on the desk in her home office before hitting the shower. Wrapped in a towel, twenty or so minutes later, Fallon picked through her things searching for something comfortable and outdoor appropriate. She dressed quickly and grabbed her bag before hitting the sidewalk and walking over to the park. She lived close enough, having the money to get a nice apartment in a good neighbourhood, right by Central Park. She’d just bought the chunky boots she was wearing and felt a little giddy every time she spotted them in her closet. She had spent the entire week wearing them around her apartment to break them in, and now they were comfortable enough that she could wear them out.

Fallon loved that she lived so close to the park, it made going for runs outside so much easier when the mood struck. Lately, she’d been thinking about adopting a dog, another animal to keep her company in that big apartment. Having a puppy around would also give her a reason to walk around the park more often and hit that gym she was a member of. She kept up a text conversation with Gabe, letting him know she was probably going to be a bit late meeting up at his place since she was meeting up with an old friend and wasn’t sure how long they were going to be chatting. Fallon knew she was the only person in New York that Immy knew but she didn’t know that the other woman was there the way she was.

The Hollywood blonde felt bad, but after they graduated from high school, the two had sort of drifted apart. Fallon had always adored the other girl even since meeting her the first day of their senior year when Fallon hadn’t known a soul in the school! They’d made fast friends and Imogen had been one of the only ones that was friends with Fallon because she liked the tiny blonde, and not because of who her uncle was; it was refreshing. They’d had a few laughs and when she contacted her again, Fallon was delighted to hear from her. She’d missed her high school friend terribly and couldn’t wait until they could really hang out. With work and the school year coming to an end, it was difficult to find the time in her busy schedule to make plans and actually carrying them through. These days the only reason she saw her own boyfriend was because he studied at her school and he dragged her out on the weekends to keep himself sane and have another person to watch over their friend!

Fallon got to the gardens and started her search for her friend. She wasn’t sure if she’d changed much and started to worry about that when she spotted her friend walking through the gardens. Fallon smiled, seeing she hadn’t changed much in the years they’d been apart. Fallon slipped through a couple tourists taking in the sights of the beautiful Central Park Gardens, excusing herself if she bumped into someone. As she approached, Fallon’s smile beamed. “Immy! It’s been forever!” she said, grabbing her friends’ arm. Laughing happily, Fallon enveloped the other girl in a hug. She’d seen the other girl since she moved to the city but it really felt like forever since then.

Tag || Immy!
Words || 708
Clothes || Unstoppable
Music || When We were Young by Take That
Notes || <3

[Imogen Katelyn Rose Lancaster]

She didn’t know what she was going to tell Fallon yet, if she told her anything at all today. It wasn’t like Imogen was proud of what had happened or how she had reacted to it, but what was done was done and now she had other things to be focusing on in her new home. She had told herself that morning that she would tell Fallon at least a hint of the truth, but now she wasn’t so sure. Obviously, talking about it would have to happen eventually, but Imogen never claimed to be brave or confident, despite the image she sometimes managed to keep up for the rest of the world. Back in LA she had needed that though, especially since her father kept her very much a part of the social side of the hotel they ran and no one staying there would want to see the owner’s daughter looking flustered and frazzled.

That was all behind her though and with a quick change of her last name, it would be hard for anyone to instantly associate her with the family now that she was miles and miles away and starting out on a life she hoped to one day be proud of. She only wrote small articles for magazines or websites right now, spending her evenings making the orders that came in on her small website that seemed to be doing not so bad right now. It wasn’t like she spent hours slaving over little trinkets and there were plenty of days when nothing came through at all, but recently there had been one or two orders placed per day for necklaces or bracelets. The process of making them was something Imogen found therapeutic and she would curl up in her den with some music on the radio and sometimes make more than she needed, just because she was enjoying it so much.

Financially, Imogen was lucky. She still had enough money in her bank account to live off of, thanks to the lifestyle she had been born into and the way her father would endlessly keep topping his kid’s accounts up, despite Imogen and Jack telling him they didn’t need it. So financial security and expenses were not going to pose a problem, but the young blonde woman honestly didn’t know how she could do this without the emotional support that only came from having true friends around.

A warm smile crossed Imogen’s glazed lips as she saw Fallon coming closer, pulling her almost instantly into a tight hug. Laughing, her arms wrapped around Fallon’s back and squeezed her close, only now realising just how much she had missed having the smaller blonde in her life. “It really has. Why did we let it go so long?”

[/color] She asked, pulling away and folding her arms. The smile still danced on her lips and suddenly all the worries that had been plaguing her thoughts had vanished and she was thinking now about all the catching up they had to do and everything they had to talk about. Knowing Fallon, there would be plenty of gossip to be had and stories to be told. The two girls were once insanely close and Imogen hoped to get that back again now that they were living in the same city again.
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• • •

TAGGED! Fallon <3
WORDS! 591!
OUTFIT! Fashionable Mess
LYRICS! Glitz and Glamour - - The Cab
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Fallon Alexandra Flynn]

Fallon felt terrible that work kept her at the office, hunched over piles of papers needing grading. It was always the same at the end of the school year and try as she might, there was barely any time during the week to sleep let alone get any work done. Gabe made a good effort in helping her, making sure she actually left the office and didn’t wake up on the couch or worse yet across her desk with her papers scattered all over the place. It wouldn’t be the first time, or the last but for the time being it didn’t matter. And it was a free day so

“My fault, I’ll let work take the blame!” Fallon said chuckling as she shook her head. It was a nightmare at year’s end. Thankfully, she wasn’t one of the professors who had summer classes. Her students all had summer internships and jobs they had to go to for credit. She was pretty lucky that way, to have her summer months free when there were others who worked quite a bit through the summer. “And before that, naturally, it was university that kept us busy, plus there were shoes to buy and boys to con drinks out of,” she added, grinning mischievously. It was far from a secret that Fallon was a small bit of a scam artist in the clubs. She had never gone to pick up; she’d gone to have fun with her friends. If they cared enough to ask about it, she would have said she wasn’t interested. But they never had, so Fallon got a couple drinks from them and disappeared into the sea of people on the dance floor. Hell, she admitted to still doing it, despite obviously flirting with Gabe.

It was like they couldn’t figure out what she was doing with Gabe, and honestly, they didn’t have to be able to see it. She loved him and that’s what mattered; not what they thought. He was sweet and charming. He got carried away when he was passionate about something. He was just an incredible person who had always been there for her when she needed someone. “So, what’s new?” she asked, smiling, mentally shaking herself free of thoughts of Gabe; no matter how hard it seemed to be to get him out of her musings. It had been too long since the two were really able to sit down and talk and have fun like the old days. Fallon had crazy hours and Imogen was still settling into the city. It was a bit of awkward timing, but they were both making an effort to catch up and really, Fallon missed the old days of senior year of high school; the two were so close and Fallon wanted that back again. She didn’t expect it to be exactly the same, after all neither of them were the same person as they were when they were eighteen but still they could still be quite close once again.

Tag || Immy!
Words || 502
Clothes || Unstoppable
Music || When We were Young by Take That
Notes || <3

[Imogen Katelyn Rose Lancaster]

Imogen knew how busy life could be in this day and age. Really, this move to New York was the first time she had relaxed since college had finished. Working with her brother had kept both of them busy and aside from the weekends when she had let her hair down, Imogen was usually up to her elbows in paperwork, accounts and meetings; all that were part of her inheritance. The move might have been primarily out of fear, but it had turned out to be so liberating and for once, Imogen was living on her own terms and if she wanted to sleep in, then she had that choice.

“You’re not the only one. Work is a life-ruiner, I swear.”

[/color] Moving had taken up a lot of the tall blonde’s time too. Luckily, the apartment she bought was furnished throughout so the only stuff she had to unpack was really her clothes and personal bits and bobs. She had been on a bit of a shopping blitz since her move, but that was only to make the place more of a home. She’d have to do it again soon when she turned the only empty room into a nursery, but that was something Imogen was putting aside until there was someone else to sit on the floor and help her build a crib that had pathetic instructions and far too many screws and bolts for it to make sense. She had her fingers crossed that some crafting might help her pull through it all. “True, true. Boys are far too stressful, even if we do get free drinks. I’m going to take a break from them, I think.”[/color] Imogen didn’t want to blurt out her secret, but she didn’t know how to talk about it either. Really, she was hoping for a break, a moment in their casual conversation where she could let it slip naturally, sparing Fallon most of the details unless she questioned them. Catching up was taking priority now and Imogen was using it to hide, though she was genuinely glad to see her old friend again.

Imogen linked her arm through Fallon’s and led her across to one of the benches. Morning sickness had yet to chronically plague the pregnant woman, but the moments of nausea came and went and usually she was just left lightheaded; sitting down would help prevent it from being obvious if a wave did sweep over her now. Stretching her legs out and pushing the dark blonde hair from her face, Imogen let out a sigh and then smiled. “Everything?”[/color] She offered as an answer, hardly knowing where to begin. “What ever happened to the simplicity of high school, hey?”[/color] Shaking her head, Imogen glanced across at the tourists snapping photographs and chewed on her lip. They had probably seen more of the city in a few short days than she had in the month and a bit she had lived in it for. Imogen had spent a lot of time just getting used to her new neighbourhood, finding the local conveniences than she had actually spent taking in the city as a whole
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• • •

TAGGED! Fallon <3
WORDS! 566
OUTFIT! Fashionable Mess
LYRICS! Glitz and Glamour - - The Cab
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Fallon Alexandra Flynn]

Fallon had a schedule, but she’d always had one. It was how life in the Flynn house was lived. She couldn’t change that when she moved to New York, especially since she was moving across the country to get a better job and get away from the comedic tragedy her life had turned into. Now though, everything was perfect and she’d even dropped most of those schedules she grew up surrounded in. Obviously, there were the ones for school, but other than that she didn’t know what she was going to do or when. And with Gabe and Myles in her life, it was always best that way. No one knew what those two had planned or how their night would end up when she was dragged along for the ride. “Work, moving across the country,” Fallon said, smirking. She had been there before. The only difference was that she’d had help with her move. Fallon hadn’t even known Imogen was moving until she was already in the city. Had she known, she would have helped, absolutely.

Fallon laughed, shaking her head. She’d spent a long time without any men in her life at all romantically. She hadn’t been ready for anything, especially something that could turn serious. She had thought that it was just her giving herself some time and space to get her act together and grow up a little bit. But she had been waiting for someone. She’d been so scared of falling for the next wrong guy that she hadn’t even seen that she was already head over heels in love with the right one. They laughed and joked about it now, but it was a stupid moment for both of them when they finally realized it. “I took plenty of time off already,” she said, feeling her cheeks warm just thinking about Gabe. They’d spent too much time pining for each other when they could have had each other and now they couldn’t get enough of each other. Theirs was a different kind of relationship. They already knew each other so well; there hadn’t been a need for those awkward first impressions and playing the role of the best you to win them over. She was really happy now.

“Stupid question,” she admitted, laughing. She should have seen that as a bad question. After all, Immy had just moved to the city only a short time before. Everything was still so new to her, while Fallon had had a while to get used to the difference in cities. She knew the best places to eat, she’d found the greatest flagship stores, and the little quaint boutiques she enjoyed so much. She sighed, rolling her bright blue eyes. “I wish I knew the answer to that.” Though she only spent a year in proper high school. Her ideals of the time were far different than anyone else’s might have been. “Of course, you spent more time there than I did, so you’d have the answer better than I would,” she teased. Her phone rang, but it wasn’t important, so she reached into her bag and hit the silence button. She rolled her eyes at the phone, “Sorry, it’s not important.” And even if it was, catching up with her high school friend meant more at the moment.

Tag || Immy!
Words || 551
Clothes || Unstoppable
Music || When We were Young by Take That
Notes || <3

[Imogen Katelyn Rose Lancaster]

Really, this was the first time in Imogen’s life that she didn’t have to be somewhere each day at a certain time. Her phone wasn’t ringing off the hook with appointments and meetings, she didn’t have to dress up and go to business dinners or meet with executive guests. It was the first time since college that she could relax, though her mind was rarely silent from the worries and the questions that no one would really be able to answer. The ties to her family, to the person she had been raised to be were severed completely and she had no one but herself to answer to at the end of the day, granting her with the freedom to be anyone she wanted to be. Laughing, she nodded in agreement. “Yeah, driving across the country with everything you own in the back of your car does keep you a little busy.”

[/color] She pulled a face and pushed her soft curls back from her eyes. Doing it all alone had probably been a little more stressful, but Imogen didn’t mind; it had kept her busy and stopped her from freaking out too much about the pregnancy.

Imogen had been the kind of girl who had spent recent years enjoying her youth. She hadn’t been in a serious relationship, but casually dated instead, enjoying the fun that came from meeting and flirting with someone new. It might have landed her in a temporary mess, but it was something she could turn around and make into something wonderful. She hadn’t been ready for the whole diamond ring on her finger and annual family holidays to some cute little villa. She still wasn’t ready for that. Just because she was going to be a mom, it didn’t mean that she had to want the whole white picket fence dream. “And now you’re making up for it?”[/color] Immy had noticed the lovesick look in her friend’s eyes and was happy for her. She just hoped her friend stayed happy and that this wasn’t some honeymoon period for her and Gabe. Fallon deserved to have some happy ending after avoiding romance for so long.

Laughing, Imogen waved her hand and knocked her friend’s reply away. Moving was only one thing that was new to her, the rest was a little harder to just come out with. Nodding, Imogen sighed and pushed her hair back again, shrugging and then shaking her head. “Spending all the time there still didn’t help make sense of it.”[/color] She said on a sigh. Imogen had done the whole high school American girl thing and now it still confused her to think back to some of the drama that took place in those Californian halls. She shrugged again and looked at the plants growing around her. “Life goes on, I guess.”[/color] In this day and age phones rang off the hook regardless of what a person was doing or where they were. The only reason her own was so quiet was because very few people had her new number. She felt her head spin a little and closed her eyes until it passed, reaching into her bag for the bottle of water she had brought with her, just in case this happened and the nausea swept over her. Luckily, nothing else came with the momentary bout of dizziness this time.
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• • •

TAGGED! Fallon <3
WORDS! 601
OUTFIT! Fashionable Mess
LYRICS! Glitz and Glamour - - The Cab
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Fallon Alexandra Flynn]

High school had been a long time ago, but Fallon still had fond memories of the year she spent walking through the halls of that school. She’d been the new girl with the adventurous past. Everyone wanted to be her friend, and she wasn’t used to the attention she had been getting. Thankfully, she had met Imogen in her first class and she saved the poor girl from her first lunch break. She hadn’t thought going to a school full of people the same age would be intimidating but it had been, even if she’d taken it in stride and made the best of the situation. With Immy’s help, Fallon had gotten over everything and learnt everything she needed to know about high school within that first week by hanging out with the other blonde. She liked now though how busy she was. During that year she hadn’t been really. She had the job at Starbucks, and she had school, but other than that, she didn’t have anything else to do and before that year, she’d been so busy with calling people and making lunch dates with actors and actresses trying to get them to sign contracts for movies that she hadn’t thought much about anything other than sleep most nights when she finally found a pillow to rest her head.

It was nice to have that break throughout school, but she had missed working at the studio and ended up going back whenever she could get the chance; especially through college when she went from getting a ton of hours to asking only for a shift or two a pay until eventually she left altogether to go back to the studio. Fallon wrinkled her nose at the thought of having everything she owned in the back of the Jeep she had back home or the SUV she had now. “I can’t even picture how much of a pain that would have been,” she said, shuddering. Fallon didn’t bring along much, just enough that Trevor had to rent a small moving truck to transport it all. She ended up buying some new furniture since she wanted to keep most of her stuff in California for her trips home. The truck she had was mostly filled with her clothes, shoes and accessories and books. Nearly every piece of furniture she had in her apartment was brand new; having shopped for it all online so it would be delivered the same day she arrived in town.

Fallon had spent most of her life surrounded by the rich and famous. And being surrounded by that, it was easy to see through the charm that seemed to ooze from their pores. There were quite a few that she considered family, often calling them Aunt or Uncle. And with them and Trevor harping on her, it was very easy to say no to the advances she got. And then she went to school, met Brad and everything went to hell. Oh, she hadn’t known it at the time, but now that her rose coloured glasses where thrown in the trash, she saw it clear as day. She spent a little while after that getting her life in order, taking some serious me time and spending a lot of time making men look like fools for assuming one drink meant she was going home with them. She still wasn’t interested in the white picket fence thing; the suburbs were absolutely not Fallon. But she was happy with Gabe and wanted to be with him, no matter what. And that was something. Fallon laughed, nodding her head. “Absolutely, I am,” she said, between fits of giggles. She had never felt this way, about Brad, about anyone. She really, truly loved Gabe.

“High school is just one of those things, I guess,” she said, rolling her eyes. She didn’t understand the place, she only knew that she wanted to experience a year of what every other kid who wasn’t actually in front of the camera got to experience. Ultimately, the year had gotten Fallon some new not famous friends, and that was about it. “Annoying sometimes, isn’t it?” she asked, looking around at the people milling about the park, snapping up pictures like crazy. She’d been to dozens of places all over the world, but she’d never really been able to play tourist; not since she was a little kid. There was always work to be done, and the sets were usually fun. The time off some of the crew got, they often took her along to get treats like gelato in Italy or crepes in Paris. She had been just a little girl going to those places so it had never really mattered to her if she saw the Eiffel Tower or the Sistine Chapel. “There’s a pretzel cart down a ways, interested?” she asked, feeling her stomach growling. She couldn’t remember if she actually stopped working that morning to eat or not and she could go for one of those pretzels covered in cinnamon and icing.

Tag || Immy!
Words || 840
Clothes || Unstoppable
Music || When We were Young by Take That
Notes || <3

[Imogen Katelyn Rose Lancaster]

Imogen had done the pretty conventional high school lifestyle. She had been a cheerleader, she had dated, her heart had been broken, she had friends, she got into trouble…there was really nothing out of the ordinary about her life. She took a few extra classes at her father’s request, but apart from that, it wasn’t at all like she was about to inherit the family legacy with her brother. At the same time though, Imogen had never been one of those teenagers who thrived on everything high school had to offer. Once it was over, it was over; simple as that. Then came college and all of those fun and games instead. Sure, she had made some good friends, but the only one she was in contact with now was Fallon for the same reason that she had come to New York in the first place.

Imogen was saying goodbye to all of that, to everything her life had been. She had to let all of that go and move on from what she had been supposed to do. It wasn’t like she didn’t have anything to prepare for or nothing to look forward to. She was still a long way off yet, but soon enough she’d be a mom and her life would be consumed by raising her child and making sure that they had the best life that she could offer. It wasn’t going to be easy, she knew that, but the willingness to do what it takes had to count for a decent first step in the right direction. Chuckling, she had to nod in agreement. Her car wasn’t some big truck and getting the cases and the boxes in her vehicle had been quite the challenge, though she had done most of it when the house had been empty and then she had left the top up, so that no one else could see the packed bags when they went to get their own car. “It was fine until I needed space to move.”

[/color] She laughed, remembering just how cramped the four day journey had been. She might have been able to do it in a shorter time, but she had wanted to make sure she had a decent rest each night and she had to stop every time she felt a wave of nausea come over her. It was not something she’d advise anyone else to do and it wasn’t something she wanted to do again.

Nudging Fallon slightly, Imogen rolled her eyes and grinned at her friend. “Why you’re nothing but a lovesick fool.”[/color] She teased. She had never seen her friend like this, even over the holidays when they had met up around their university semesters. The blonde girl pushed her hair back from her face again and then laughed softly, still amused at seeing this side to Fallon after so many years of knowing the girl. “I’m happy for you, Fall.”[/color] She said sincerely, taking a moment out of their jokes and teasing to wish her friend the best.

She had spent her life living this indulgent lifestyle that she hadn’t realised she had grown bored with until now. Sure, she’d still spend way too much money on clothes and shoes, but she wanted to live now without worrying about her hair being pristine and worrying who might see her on the streets. She might have moved so that people didn’t recognise her anyway, but it was still a nice thought to know that she wouldn’t have to dress up to run out and do her grocery shopping and she could have lazy days where she just threw her hair up instead of fussing over it in the morning with the irons. She saw people running around in the same way she did back in LA and she found herself smiling, knowing that, at least for now, that wouldn’t be her. She looked across to Fallon at the mention of pretzels and nodded her head. She hadn’t eaten since she had made some toast that morning when she woke up and walked Pippa. “Sounds good to me.”[/color] She took another mouthful of her water before putting the bottle back in her bag and pushing herself to her feet. Imogen waited for Fallon and then proceeded down the way to the pretzel cart, chatting casually with her friend as they went.
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• • •

TAGGED! Fallon <3
WORDS! 770
OUTFIT! Fashionable Mess
LYRICS! Glitz and Glamour - - The Cab
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Fallon Alexandra Flynn]

There wasn’t anything conventional about Fallon’s lifestyle in any way growing up. Hers had been parties, red carpets if the premiere was early enough or she was old enough, dinners, and the occasional award show. She wouldn’t have changed a minute of it all though. The people she’d met, the places she’d been. It had all been an incredible experience, and one that she’d wanted to pursue at one point. She still did, but she wanted to be able to do it on her own terms, so she could teach and work at the studio. She already did it now when they were filming in New York. She’d heard plenty of the child actors say they wanted to quit for a while, have normal childhoods, where they could go to school, play sports and whatever. Fallon had never felt like that. She knew what she’d been given; she didn’t want to throw it all away, even when she was little, to be just another face in the crowd. Fallon couldn’t say goodbye to that lifestyle for the sole fact that it followed her anyway. She may not have been anything more than a face in the background with a line here or there if need be, but she was good with that, she met friends through these films, who still kept in contact to see if she was ever going back to the studio, to do lunch or if Trevor needed, to talk one of them into a good role that needed that persons special touch.

“Tight squeeze?” Fallon asked, grinning. She could just picture Immy stuck in her car surrounded by her things and having next to no space to move or adjust. She’d been really lucky when she’d moved. If it were her, Fallon knew she wouldn’t have been the one driving her own car. The petite blonde was good in small spaces, on sets she was the one crawling under, over and around things to fix them when the crew couldn’t fit, pretty summer dress be damned. But she couldn’t stay like that for the entire drive from California to New York; not unless she stopped a dozen times on the nearly two day nonstop drive. She was quite proud of the other blonde for being able to do the drive. It probably took twice as long but she had done it all on her own and that was something.

“Hey now!” she said waving her hands. “I am not a fool,” she finished, laughing. No, this time she knew what she was getting herself into. Back in that year of high school and college, she hadn’t known, she’d been blind. It wasn’t something she was proud of, or enjoyed talking about but she did it because she knew it was actually helping. Instead of keeping it all bottled up inside, never letting it out, she never let it go. It may have been behind her, but it was always there. “And before I was nothing more than a fool,” she admitted, rolling her own eyes. She would tell Imogen what happened. One minute during holidays when Fall and Imogen hung out, her and Brad were together and the next, they weren’t. The film professor hadn’t said anything then, but she could now because she was in a much better place with everything. “Thanks, Immy. It means a lot,” Fall said, throwing her arm around her friend’s shoulders for a quick hug. “I’m really glad you’re here,” she added, dropping her arm again. Fallon kept up an easy conversation on the walk down the path, finally ordering what she wanted and while she waited for Imogen to do the same, she pulled enough bills from her wallet for both pretzels and water for herself. She smiled, saying thanks as she exchanged money for the food she’d been craving. “Where to?” she asked before biting into the soft pretzel.

Tag || Immy!
Words || 651
Clothes || Unstoppable
Music || When We were Young by Take That
Notes || <3

[Imogen Katelyn Rose Lancaster]

Saying goodbye to a life was not easy and wasn’t something Imogen had done without thinking long and hard about it. She knew plenty of people wouldn’t have agreed with her choice to run, but then those people didn’t live her exact life. Imogen had weighed up her options, spent nights thinking about the alternatives, but this really was the best situation for everyone. She did not want to be the girl to tear her family apart and an unplanned pregnancy with an unknown father would have done that. She didn’t want to have to explain herself to anyone and she didn’t even plan on telling Fallon about the part where she sneaked off in the dead of night with only a cryptic note and an apology for her family. She had given up her friends and everything she once called her life and her home. The tall blonde was still nervous about all of that but she knew, deep down, that she was swapping it all for something better, a fresh start and a whole new adventure.

Rolling her eyes and pulling a face, Immy nodded. “Like you wouldn’t believe. I was surprised that I wasn’t bruised by the time I arrived in the city.”

[/color] She had bumped her elbow more times than she cared to remember and stumbling from the car after she had somehow gotten her ankle caught in the strap of one of her bags had been high on her list of embarrassing moments. The drive had given her a chance to think everything out one more time though and Imogen had felt something right from the second her wheels hit the New York streets.

Laughing, Imogen wagged at her friend and shook her head again. “Love brings out the crazy in people.”[/color] She stated as though it was a well-known truth amongst everyone. Imogen had only been in love once during college, but it had been short lived because of her own need for freedom. She preferred parties and spending her weekends able to do what she wanted rather than running it all by someone else. The trophy girlfriend role was not for her and she had given it up when he wanted more from her than she was ready for. It was a decision she didn’t regret, but she had still felt the heartache that came from losing him. “I’m pretty sure we were all fools back then. I think it’s some obligatory part of growing up.”[/color] Imogen said with a shrug like it was no big deal. Looking back on everything now and the bigger picture, most of it hadn’t been as important as they made it out to be and now their lives were a hell of a lot better for coming through it. She hugged Fallon back and smiled. “You’re welcome; a girl like you deserves nothing but happiness.”[/color] Of everyone Imogen knew, Fallon was one of the girls she knew wouldn’t throw drama back at her and that alone was enough for the blonde journalist to rate her highly.

Imogen bit into her pretzel, making sure not to make a mess or get crumbs around her glossed lips. Continuing down the path she thought for a second and then turned to Fallon with another smile. “You’ve lived here longer than me; where do you think we should go?”[/color] Imogen was feeling up for anything and it was only a few bites later that she changed her opinion on that matter. She felt the newly familiar sensation rising and quickly found the nearest trash can, grabbing her hair to hold back just in time before the curse of being pregnant struck her. Groaning, Imogen righted herself again and reached for her water bottle, quickly washing away the horrible taste in her mouth with a strong mint too. She hadn’t counted on anything like this happening, which was really her own fault when she knew how temperamental her gut was being these last few weeks. “Sorry. I’m fine. Let’s keep going.”[/color] Imogen said, smiling weakly at her friend and bracing herself for the unavoidable questions that she suspected were to come now.
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• • •

TAGGED! Fallon <3
WORDS! 732
OUTFIT! Fashionable Mess
LYRICS! Glitz and Glamour - - The Cab
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Fallon Alexandra Flynn]

Fallon had been lucky that she didn’t have to give up her old life for her new one. She was still welcome at the New York office of the studio, still welcomed on sets and often brought her students along to both to get a real taste of what behind the scenes was really like. About ninety percent of her students were stunned into silence when a celebrity would waltz right up and pull Fallon into a bear hug or call out across the set to plan a lunch date. She was a beloved member of the studio and helped out quite a bit with casting and little things. Working for both places actually helped with her teaching. She could show her students firsthand what they were going to be dealing with when they graduated. Fallon laughed, “Now I’m really glad I hired a truck!” Fallon admitted easily. There was no way she would have ever been able to make the trip otherwise. If that was part of her options, she would have flown and shipped her things later.

Fallon chuckled at her friend, rolling her eyes at the idea. “I’m pretty sure Gabe along with most of the guys from his frat would agree that I was crazy before we got together,” she said, honestly. He’d known her for years, even better than Imogen right now since they’d drifted a bit in the last few years. She’d done some seriously what were you thinking things in College. There were parties she couldn’t remember, trips to the hospital with broken bones; thankfully only one trip was actually for her. And there were trips for Spring Break no one who went ever spoke about. She’d become a part of the house, without having to go through the mess of actually pledging and all that junk. The blonde film professor even now couldn’t quite understand the ways of the Pi Kappa Phis but she loved the bunch of guys she called brothers. “Though some of them are still in pissy moods that they hadn’t won the bet,” she said off hand, rolling her eyes at them. She was still getting text messages and emails about how they should have waited a month or something to confess everything. For the life of her, she still didn’t know who started that bet in the first place, but she would put money down on Myles and Trevor. And now there was another one going, though no one was telling the blonde what it was about. She was pretty sure even Gabe was still clueless to that one. Fallon made a face, wishing her stupidity of those years were fake. “Yeah, but I’m pretty sure my foolish things went above and beyond the norm,” she said, biting her lip. She wanted to talk about it, but to just come right out and say it, especially when it wasn’t exactly her secret to spill. She didn’t care about that, one well-placed call and everyone on both coasts would know the truth, but she also didn’t want to ruin the catch up session they were having with blah news.

Fall thought about that question seriously. There were so many places in New York to go, it was nearly insane to choose just one. “Um, well, I’d suggest going to a museum, but one has Gabe and the other I like going to is closed to bring in a new gallery or something,” she said rolling her eyes, still thinking about where they could go, even when her friend made a mad dash for the nearest trash bin. “Nice try, you’re not. Sit and spill,” she said, dropping onto the nearest bench. Fallon wasn’t stupid, she could see something was wrong, but because Immy had been playing it off, she wasn’t going to say anything at first. “Or you can let me guess,” she suggested with another bite of her pretzel. Fallon could think of a few different scenarios that would have her friend greeting her snack again but she wasn’t going to jump to any conclusions until she was either given permission or she had more evidence on the matter.

Tag || Immy!
Words || 692
Clothes || Unstoppable
Music || When We were Young by Take That
Notes || <3

[Imogen Katelyn Rose Lancaster]

Laughing, Imogen glanced at her friend with a raised eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure there’re a handful of high school classmates who will tell you that you were crazy from the day they met you. At least.”

[/color] She teased, though back then it seemed like everyone was some level of crazy; it was the only way to survive those high school corridors sometimes. Imogen hadn’t been around for Fallon’s college years since she was on the opposite coast at Harvard, making memories of her own. Sure, they met up over the holidays and chatted when they could but life always got the better of them and it simply wasn’t the same to exchange stories when most of them were ‘had to be there’ moments. “Is that the bet you mentioned when I called you last?”[/color] She had laughed so hard at that story that she had been in pain by the time she put her phone down. It had sounded like something that could only happen to Fallon. Imogen had her own bizarre tales but none of them were on that level and the worst pretty much involved a train journey and a rather terrifying hangover for the aftermath of it. “Everything at that age is beyond the norm.”[/color] She didn’t think Fallon was talking about anything too life-changing, but then Imogen didn’t know what had happened to her friend then. Plus, the college years were full of crazy things that now seemed like the biggest mistakes.

Imogen didn’t really have a solid plan right now. She was in New York, which was the main thing, so everything else could be dealt with as it came though. It was a theory more easily said than done, as the tall blonde was quickly learning. The doctor told her that there she had about a month of morning sickness left, if she was lucky. So far, Imogen had been. She’d been online and read some horrific tales that left her wondering why anyone chose to get pregnant in the first damn place! Her bouts of nausea came and went pretty quickly though and even on her worst days she could pull herself back together and get back on with what she had been doing before the baby had so rudely interrupted her. Knowing how sudden that could be though, she ought to have planned today through more carefully. Imogen had wanted to enjoy some time with Fallon first before she dropped the bombshell on her friend, if she had told her today at all. Now that she had been sick so suddenly though, it seemed impossible to avoid the topic.

She was going to play it off as just something she ate or the change in the water from the move, but one look at Fallon and Imogen knew that her friend wasn’t stupid enough to buy that. She let out a sigh and took a seat next to her fellow blonde, picking at the pretzel in her hand, giving her stomach time to settle before she attempted to eat it again. Imogen couldn’t think of any subtle way of breaking her news to her friend and she hadn’t planned of any of this happening, but that seemed to be a current trend in her life. “I…I’m pregnant.”[/color] She admitted quietly, flicking her green eyes across to read Fallon’s reaction.
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• • •

TAGGED! Fallon <3
WORDS! 596
OUTFIT! Fashionable Mess
LYRICS! Glitz and Glamour - - The Cab
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Fallon Alexandra Flynn]

She wouldn’t say that her level of crazy was any different than anyone else’s. You had to be a little kooky to get through the halls of that school. If Fallon had known how ridiculous the school was, she would have stuck to being homeschool on the sets of movies with the child stars. Of course, then she would never have met Imogen and this conversation wouldn’t be happening at all. So in that case, she was really happy she’d done what she’d wanted. “You have to be a little nutty to grow up like I did,” she said honestly. You also had to be smarter than your average 6 year old. Fallon hadn’t been a wild child growing up, but she wasn’t the innocent that she pretended to be either. She played pranks on the crew, slipped away on set for hours and when she’d gotten older, slipped away from set completely for hours of exploring. When they were in the middle of the country, filming in the woods, there wasn’t much to explore, but the cities they filmed in, in Europe, she was lucky she hadn’t been picked up and sold into prostitution with the way she snuck off. After a while, she’d been given a bodyguard to watch over her wherever she went, so gone were the days of sneaking off alone.

Fallon missed having girl time with someone who knew her before the move to New York. Imogen was her oldest friend her own age. Devon was great and all, but there were just some things that were difficult to describe because she’d changed since then, she wasn’t the same girl she is now. And it was easier to reminisce with someone who’d been around when it happened. She nodded, rolling her eyes again. "Yeah," she said, sighing. Leave it to a bunch of frat boys to place bets on everything; including their own brother’s love life. They could be pissy all they wanted with Fallon and Gabe, she loved him and therefore, she won, no matter who got the actual cash. Fallon looked across at her high school friend with a quirked brow. “Did you know Brad is gay?” she asked, proving her point that people’s foolishness may go pretty high, but hers went even higher.

Fallon had thought she had a plan when she was in college, but since her sudden disengagement and then throwing herself into work it was a little different. She’d thought she’d have it all with Brad, and then she’d found him the way she had and that all flew out the window. She’d been too afraid to fall, that she had been blind to see she already had. She’d been dating Brad for another three years despite already falling head over heels for the scholar she was with now. Her plan, like anyone else’s at her age, was completely up in the air. She had NYU, she had Gabe, Myles, Devon and now Imogen, she had her party nights and that was all she needed right now. The rest she could figure out as she went, because that was the only way to write the most memorable story.

Seeing Immy lose her lunch had Fallon’s mind instantly on high alert, searching through everything she knew to find a plausible reason for her friend to be perfectly fine one minute and so sick the next. She came up with the flu and pregnancy. Just because she was a natural blonde, didn’t mean she was the stereotype for them. She stayed quiet a lot whenever she was on set or doing something but it wasn’t because she was quiet or shy, it was because she was watching everything that was going on around her, taking it all in. she had sharp, intelligent eyes that almost never let anything slip past them. And since Immy seemed like she was having trouble telling Fallon the news, it could really only mean one thing. Fallon smiled when her thoughts were confirmed but her friend still looked a little nervous. “I want to say congratulations, but you don’t seem all that happy right now. What’s wrong?” she asked, after her mouth was free of food.

Tag || Immy!
Words || 700!
Clothes || Unstoppable
Music || When We were Young by Take That
Notes || <3

[Imogen Katelyn Rose Lancaster]

Imogen’s life had never been anything like Fallon’s, but she had spent a lot of her youth in the family owned hotel that was situated in the heart of LA. There were a lot of functions, fancy dinners and meeting people she had never heard of before, but apparently should’ve done. A few celebrities had stayed there and she had introduced herself to one or two of them, but that was as far as it went with mixing with the stars. Even today she didn’t quite understand the fuss her father kicked up so much when she was still just a kid. Jack apparently did, but he just told Immy that they were from two different planets most of the time. It was probably true, too. As far as she knew, Jack had rarely done anything to break the rules or land himself in trouble and yet Imogen had told necessary lies and snuck out of things more times than she cared to count, all in the name of having a good time. Obviously, it had landed her here in New York now, but she had yet to regret that at all. “Well, in LA, I think ‘nutty’ is one of the best things to be. It’s either that or sell out.”

[/color] She said, only partially serious. She did know girls who she had gone high school with who had completely sold out to follow some ridiculous Hollywood ideal that rose-tinted glasses told them they could achieve.

Imogen did spend some nights wondering how she would cope without her old support system of her family and her friends who still resided in LA, even after college. Then she reminded herself that in New York she had Fallon and after spending her whole life making friends pretty easy, she didn’t think there would be an overwhelming struggle here to find some friendly faces who might even change her life someday. She had Fallon though, and that was what Imogen really cared about. Her eyebrows moved towards her hairline in surprise at her friend’s ‘news’. She took a moment, nodded and then smacked her lips together. “I knew it. That boy was just too perfect on paper to be real.”[/color] She said, adding a sigh as though it all made sense now. In a way, it did. There seemed to be far too much right about Brad for Imogen to even believe that everything was true about him. She even knew a few girls who found him so perfect that no other guy was ever going to be good enough when held in comparison. Not looking for love herself, Imogen had rolled her eyes and told those girls to get over it and just live their lives; not everything could follow some perfect structure.

Any ideas of plans had really gone out of the window for Imogen by now. She may have worked quickly to get herself out of LA and settled in New York, but that was as far as she had gotten. Now she didn’t know where to start on anything and was just taking each day as it came, working on occasion and spending most of her time growing accustomed to the differences between her old and new home. The tall blonde was already in love with the city and the warehouse converted apartment she had managed to snag, but that was just the beginning and there was still a hell of a lot of surprises to come her way and Imogen just didn’t know how to brace herself for them all. Shrugging softly, Imogen shook her head and looked at the trees in front of them while she tried to get her thoughts together. “I’m still in shock from it all, I guess. A few months back and I was still partying it up in San Francisco every weekend and now I’m looking at strollers and cribs. Do you know how many times I’ve had to spit wine down the sink because I’ve accidentally poured myself a glass after a long day when I’ve felt stressed?”[/color] She added, laughing softly. Of course she was feeling stressed after everything she had gone through recently, but her usual soothing techniques were not the healthiest for her anymore and she was still struggling to remedy that.
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• • •

TAGGED! Fallon <3
WORDS! 756
OUTFIT! Fashionable Mess
LYRICS! Glitz and Glamour - - The Cab
NOTES! <3 <3 <3