Page 5 of The Reunion

Is that supposed to be your face? I mean, clearly, that’s a cat tattoo on the left, but the other tattoo beside it… uhhhh…

The artist (and I use that term loosely) has taken quite the abstractapproach to the size and placement of Ransom’s various facial features, and it doesn’t exactly look purposeful.

His reply is immediate.

yes. yes it is.

And now I’m crying, bothatthe unfortunate tattoo andforthe person who now has it permanently affixed to her skin.

The resemblance is uncanny, I text back. All these years of silence and, somehow, out of nowhere, it’s like we never left off.I think my favorite part is how the artist has attempted to make it look like Tattoo Ransom is gazing fondly at Tattoo Cat.

He sends back a skull emoji, followed quickly bycan you imagine asking someone to put this on your skin permanently? or… at all?

I’ve never seen anything so perfectly hideous, I write.The more I look at it, the more I kind of want one.

nothing says liv latimer like a botched tattoo of my face gazing longingly at someone else’s cat, he replies.

He still knows exactly what will make me laugh, and for one suspended moment, it feels like nothing’s changed.

We’re not the same people we were all those years ago, I remind myself.

And yet.

Another message bubble appears before I can write back.

on a serious note, i’m looking forward to seeing you tonight, livvie. it’s been too long.

My laughter catches in my throat, and now I’m blinking back tears for a different reason altogether. I don’t know how to respond. It’s not that I’mnotlooking forward to seeing him—I am, I think, despite all our complicated history. It’s more that I feel myself start to unravel a bit when I try to imaginehowit will be to see him. How I’ll feel, being so close again after all the distance that’s been between us. If it will be awkward—if it will hurt.

These texts help, at least.

On a serious note, I eventually write back,I’m looking forward to unveiling the freshly botched tattoo I plan to get on the way to dinner! I’ll be the talk of the red carpet for sure.

Almost as soon as I hit send, a dot bubble pops up but disappears just as quickly.

I really should finish getting ready.

I can’t bring myself to set the phone down.

A moment later, another dot bubble pops up. Instead of disappearing this time, though, it’s replaced by a new message. Three little words, no punctuation, and the effect is like a dizzying shot of pure oxygen straight to my brain:

you always are

#5Facts: Sasha-Kate Kilpatrick—Look at Her Now!

By Octavia Benetton // Staff Writer,Love & Lightning Rounds

What’s up, Lightning Bugs—welcome to a shiny new round of #5Facts! Seems like everyone and their llamas are losing their minds over the upcoming reunion of theGirl on the Vergecast… yours truly included! If you’ve been around here for any amount of time, you know this site stans the *other* It Girl from back in the day: Sasha-Kate Kilpatrick, fictional sibling—and longtime real-life rival—of beloved pop culture icon Liv Latimer. Liv has soaked up enough of the spotlight over the years, yes? Let’s give Sasha-Kate the moment in the sun she deserves! Here are five things you might not know about Sasha-Kate:

1. Sasha-Kate may have played Liv’s younger sister on TV,but she’s actually two months older than Liv!

2. Rumor has itthat her feud with Liv began when Sasha-Kate auditioned for the part of Honor St. Croix but was passed over for it due to her height. She’s a full four inches shorter than Liv!

3. Sasha-Kate is the only cast member who sat out on the Australian leg of their world tour.Her brother played on the professional junior tennis circuit for a few years, and she cut out of the tour early to go watch him play in the semifinals at Wimbledon! Psssst: tennis runs in their family, and it’s another reason Sasha-Kate resented Liv’s casting as Honor!Liv had never picked up a racquet prior to her role on the show, sources confirm, while Sasha-Kate was practically born with one in her hand (her mother played competitively for Romania before a wrist injury cut her career short).

4. Ransom Joel isn’t the cast’s only animal activist.Sasha-Kate poured a huge portion of her earnings from the show into the Save the Whales movement, and has cochaired a number of fundraising events to promote general awareness for the protection and preservation of our oceans.

5. And finally, looooook at baby Sasha-Kate from S1:E1 of the show.Remember how they always had her hair in double Dutch braids for those first two seasons? I had almost forgotten, especially since her hair became EVERYTHING in later seasons (surely you remember the Bianca, since every girl on the beach that one summer had those billowy sand-blond ombré waves that looked like the *actual* beach at low tide?? Or is that just me?).

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