Malibu Rising

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Apparently, at the party back in 1980, Doug Tucker, the new head of Sunset Studios, got plastered and told everyone that he had proof Celia St. James was gay.

MY SHAYLA

“We used to play dress-up in her parents’ room. I noticed they had two sinks in their master bathroom. And I just thought, I want that when I’m an adult. So my husband and I can brush our teeth at the same time.” “I love that,” Mick said, nodding. “I’m not from a two-sink world either. Where I’m from, we couldn’t even afford lobster rolls.”

:')

And so, in a way, you could say that this is when Mick fell in love with June, if falling in love is a choice. He chose her. But for June it wasn’t a choice at all. For June it was a free fall.

Don Adler was there.

hey girlie pop

There it was. What he came for. When he left, he forgot to take the cake.

Mick was in an impeccable black suit, leaning over and winking at a young woman in the front row, at the very moment that his first son, three hundred miles away, cried at the shock of the world.

Jerkoff

As with most of their disagreements, they found the anger dissipated as soon as they forgot to hold on to it.

She tuned it to a rerun of My Friend Flicka in the hope that Nina would sit there quietly and watch. Nina did exactly as she was told. Even before the age of two, she knew how to read a room.

June continued to plead to no avail but the truth was, she was only a little surprised. She was a woman, after all. Living in a world created by men. And she had long known that assholes protect their own. They are faithful to no one but surprisingly protective of each other.

But in the morning, her anger had lost its edges. It had morphed into sorrow. She was now overtaken by the dull ache of grief, expansive and tender like a whole-body bruise. She had lost the life she had believed she’d been granted. She was in mourning.

jesus christ this writing is insane

And because June had not shrugged off his arm, Mick felt confident enough to kiss her neck. And because she had not shrugged off the small request, she did not know how to shrug off the larger one. And on and on it went. Small boundaries broken, snapped like tiny twigs, so many that June barely noticed he was coming for the whole tree.

She cried because she was not surprised that he had left, only that it was happening now, in this moment. And not tomorrow or a month from now or ten years from now.

It would be the last time they all surfed together. Even though Jay did not know what would happen over the course of the evening—did not know just what awaited them all—he did know that.

If Kit dies in a fucking fire or drowns I'm doing to kms

So, instead of asking Mick to pay for the needs of his own children, June finally turned to her parents. She took a job at the restaurant. June ended up in the exact place she had hoped Mick Riva would save her from.

“Go!” June said, her voice impatient. Nina thought she was in trouble. June believed she was setting her free.

I am fucking SOBBING

Jay and Hud. An apple and an orange. They did not have the same abilities or wear the same virtues. And yet, they still belonged side by side.

Our parents live inside us, whether they stick around or not, Hud thought. They express themselves through us in the way we hold a pen or shrug our shoulders, in the way we raise our eyebrow. Our heritage lingers in our blood. The idea of it scared the shit out of him.

It hurt. It hurt so bad that there was a part of her that wanted to get out a bottle of Smirnoff and fix herself a Sea Breeze.

noooooo

It was her last conscious thought. Forty-five minutes later, she drowned. June Riva, that once tenderhearted dreamer, was gone.

I'm gonna punch a fucking hole in the wall

And she knew, in a flash, that she had to be able to catch them. She had to be able to hold each of them up, as they screamed, as the water came and soaked their socks and squeaked into their shoes. And so she did. Do you know how much a body can weigh when it falls into your arms, helpless? Multiply it by three. Nina carried it all. All of the weight, in her arms, on her back.

This is the most incredible writing I am shattered

Ramon shook his head. “Your mother was a good woman. You’re all good people. So yes, I do have to do this. And you have to let me.”

I want a Nina and Ramon end game but I don't want him to leave his wife and kids. I wish he was chronically single

And yet, it was undeniable, her allure.

omg she's gay and wants to kiss a boy to prove she's not noooooo girl make out with the waitress right nowwwwwww

Suddenly, Kit felt desperate to quiet the voice that she now realized had been calling to her for years. And so, she kissed Ricky Esposito harder. She put her arms around him and pushed her chest against his, as if, if she really tried, she could deny everything she knew was true.

:(((((((

She stopped at a gas station to fill her tank, trying to decide if she was filling it up to go home or to go to her first day of school in Irvine or to drive off a cliff.

Nina imagined feeling like a stranger to him, imagined him feeling like a stranger to her. What a loss that would have been—to have gone her whole life not knowing this person who felt like he owned one third of her heart. To not have been there during Hud’s obsession with Frisbee or to see how excited he was when he got his first camera, to not know Hud’s gentleness, to not know that Hud can’t eat too much vinegar or he starts to sweat. He was hers.

Hud man I am crying in the mf club

Mick Riva was standing in front of the mirror in his bedroom straightening his tie.

bro can you just NOT? he's like a cockroach and won't fucking go away or die

When you fall in love with your manager’s assistant, fire your manager, promote his gorgeous assistant, marry her, and then divorce her, you’re left with no wife or manager.

crazy how that happens you pos

There would be rocking chairs and swaddles, mashed bananas and high chairs, the pride of a first step. There would be a wild and beautiful future.

not well

“It is Carrie Soto.” Nina was already tired. “What about her?” “She is on your front lawn throwing clothes and threatening to light them on fire.”

im actually cracking up at that chapter transition. TJR the icon you are.

I’m just really sick and tired of people thinking they can treat me like I don’t have a heart. Like mine doesn’t break, too.” Nina looked at her and nodded. She understood Carrie Soto, understood she was heartbroken, understood that in another world they might even be friends. But they were in this world. And they were not friends.

But Casey ached for her old world, where the pillows were a little scratchy and the windows were small and always sort of stuck with humidity and old paint, where dinner was always a little overcooked. Where her mom got every question wrong on Jeopardy! every night, but they all sat on the couch together and had fun listening to her guess hopelessly anyway.

queen of world building

“Brandon is upstairs, packing up your things,” Tarine said. “He is drunk, obviously. And he thinks he is kicking you out of the house.” Nina laughed. She had no choice but to find it funny.

Mick pulled up to the red stoplight at Heathercliff Road. And when it turned green, he turned left without his blinker.

if he gets in a fucking car accident with Lara ill kms

And then she leaned over, and she kissed Ricky on the cheekbone. It was the first time Kit had kissed someone with all of her heart.

cry count: 9?

“Will you sign this napkin?” Kyle Manheim asked, the second he could get close enough. He handed Mick a pen he’d scrounged up from some girl’s purse.

Kyle is the Kirk from Gilmore Girls in the TJR universe.

Hearing the phrase birth mother gave Hud the very strong instinct to stand up and sit next to Casey. He had so many things he wanted to ask her.

“If I exist on this earth, someone loves you. I’m just…I’m a very selfish man but I promise you all—I love you. I love you so much.” The sky was just beginning to lighten. Nina was so tired. “I think the problem, Dad,” she said, with an unexpected warmth in her voice, “is that your love doesn’t mean very much.” Mick closed his eyes. And he nodded. And he said, “I know, honey. I know. And I’m sorry.”

And Nina had been carrying around this box her whole life, feeling the full weight of it. But it was not, Nina saw just then, her job to carry the full box. Her job was to sort through the box.

One day, when the world made a bit more sense to her, she would have to go through that box and try to see if there was anything inside worth saving. Maybe there wasn’t much. But maybe there was more than she thought.

Jay nodded. “Wow. Well, you know what they say. If you’re gonna sleep with your brother’s ex-girlfriend, make sure you knock her up while you’re at it.” Hud laughed and then grabbed his rib cage and caught his breath. “I don’t think they say that.” “No, they don’t.” Jay stared at his shoes for a moment and then back to his brother.

bye this made me cackle

It had brought destruction. It would also bring renewal, rising from the ashes. The story of fire.