June 2085: girls just want to have fun

Happy 27th birthday to Debbie and Darla Roberts. 

Soundtrack: "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," by Cyndi Lauper

warnings: walls o' text, whee!

Debbie slid onto a bar stool and picked up the nearest drink. Something lemony, sour, strong she hoped. "Oh God, he didn't even see me. I'm mortified."

"Who?" Darla asked.

"Demitri Hobbes. Did you see him? He was in here for a minute, can you believe it? He was actually here. And he didn't even recognize me. I feel like an idiot. Everybody saw me waving like a stupid love-struck girl." Debbie sighed. "You know I did a job for him this week?"

"I have no idea who you're talking about," Darla said.

"You know, the soap actor! On Turning Tides???"

Darla didn't watch soaps, but she knew what Turning Tides was, a low-budget daytime soap filmed here in Lake City. It was sort of hard to escape in this town.

Debbie sloughed off her shame, sitting straighter, tossing her head once so that the curls piled on top of her head bounced. She grinned. "I purchased a new sofa for him. And he loved it."

Darla still couldn’t believe people paid her sister to shop for a living.

"And he gave me flowers," Debbie added.

"Did he pay you in money?"

June 2085: adventures in babysitting, part 2

Charlie Roseland is 20, Gabby is 12.


After Natty had been gone for three weeks, her pillow stopped smelling like her shampoo anymore. And that was when the reality that Charlie might never get her back again really struck him. Hard.

And maybe that might have been the night Gabby heard him crying (not nearly as much as she made out), when she complained: "This is like, the worst summer ever! Can we do something fun? Because Mom and Dad are in China having fun, and Natty's in Florida having fun, and you just sit around the house looking at naked pictures and crying all day."

"Don't touch those pictures," Charlie said.

"I didn't," Gabby said. "Eeew! I'm not too young or stupid to know what you do with them. Yuck."

June 2085: adventures in babysitting, part 1

Charlie Roseland is 20, Gabby is 12.


Gabby put her overnight bag by the couch, stuffed full with two weeks of clothes, and she'd left her soccer ball by the door. She looked around her brother's apartment, which seemed oddly vacant somehow, though she couldn't place what was different. It smelled like burnt plastic and pizza. Their parents were going to China so their dad could research for his new book, and Gabby wasn't invited. Charlie wasn't invited either though, so she didn't feel too badly about that.

"You kids can use the house if you want," her mother said. "Are you sure you have enough space here?"

"It's fine, Mom," Charlie said.

"Well you both have keys. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call. Here’s some money, it should be plenty. Where’s Natty?"

June 2085: adult supervision, part 2

Ingrid Thompson is 22, Laney is 26. Andreas Tsoukalos is 27. 


Laney was the responsible one. Laney was the good one. Laney didn't get in trouble, she didn't say bad words, she didn't stay out late, and she certainly didn't go to dive bars in the south end to watch male strippers.

But Ingrid did, and this was Ingrid's idea. "It’s kind of hot," Ingrid said. "But I'm not sure if they're actual strippers. I think they're wearing too many clothes."

June 2085: adult supervision, part 1

Ingrid and Ian Thompson are 22, Laney is 26, Heather and Adam are 52.


"Maybe this sounds weird," Ian said, sloshing his fourth beer sideways with his hand and then righting it before the entire bottle spilled. "But I kind of feel like we never left. Like maybe we might have gone to sleep after high school graduation, dreamed up the whole four years we were in college, finding Connie, dating Connie, getting dumped by Connie, then we woke up, and here we are. Everything's exactly the same. This street, this restaurant, this exact beer that's always a little too warm to be enjoyable. And I'm alone again. What's changed?"

"We got degrees," Ingrid said, shrugging lightly.

"Yeah, I guess we did."

"You got that stupid tattoo on your belly. Undeniable proof that the last four years happened." Ingrid laughed. "Go on, look. See if it's still there."

Ian lifted his shirt. The tattoo was still there. "You thought it was a good idea at the time."

"I was nineteen," she said. "I thought a lot of stupid shit was a good idea that year."

June 2085: break free, part 2

Natty is 20. Ashley is 50, Cabe is 48.

Soundtrack: “I Want to Break Free” by Queen

One thing Natty knew—maybe the only thing she knew—was that she'd always wanted to have short hair, but was never brave enough to try it. Something drastically, dramatically short. Something that left her neck breezy and her ears bare. She'd never had short hair in her life. "I need a haircut," she told her mom. So Ashley took her downtown to her stylist.

It was a busy afternoon, and there were a few women in line ahead of them. They sat to wait, and Natty had come to dread these moments of silence with her mother in the past few days, when never before had she ever dreaded time spent with her mother. When they didn't have anything to talk about, her mother only watched her carefully, like she was trying to unravel a disturbing puzzle.

"Mom, I'm okay," Natty insisted. "If you try to feed me any more, I swear I really will throw up."

June 2085: break free, part 1

Natty is 20. Ashley is 50, Cabe is 48. 

Soundtrack: “I Want to Break Free” by Queen


Natty's room at her parents' new house in Sunrise Shores was probably larger than her whole apartment back home at LCU. Boxes in the corner were still packed, things she didn't need but couldn't get rid of, like old dolls, yearbooks, and prom dresses she'd never wear again. Her bed was brand new, not the twin-sized she'd used as a girl. Now that she was a grown-up, her parents decided to buy a large and cozy queen-sized bed for her and Charlie to share when they came to visit, where they would deny they did any more than cuddle each other at night, but would maybe steal some quick, polite, very quiet sex underneath the covers once or twice while they were here.

She'd never even been here to visit them without Charlie before, and the bed was much too big without him in it.