May 2085: crazy for you, part 6

Natty and Charlie are 20. 

This was Natty’s idea. She didn't know that, but it was, because she’d mentioned some little thing about working on helicopters, and then he remembered an old toy helicopter he used to take apart and put back together. She remembered that, not him, because she was so incredibly smart, and she noticed things, and she knew him in ways he didn’t even know himself sometimes.

So Charlie blew off studying in the twenty minutes before his Biology exam. He'd studied hard enough already, and he didn’t really care about the genus of frogs right now. He ducked into the electronics lab and he picked up the tools he remembered playing with so many years ago. These were more powerful than the ones he played with as a boy, but he knew what they did. He grabbed a few scraps and put something together, a battery at its heart, electricity, life. It worked.

It was crude, but it worked, and that filled him with more joy than he could explain. Fuck yes. He felt refreshed and alive and excited like he hadn’t been in a long, long time. He couldn't wait to tell Natty.

May 2085: crazy for you, part 5

Natty and Sophia are 20, Benny is 22, Josh is 18.


Natty wore a silk blouse and some earrings Charlie had bought her for her last birthday. She didn't want to overdo it, but she'd never been to a recital before and she honestly didn't know what to wear. She'd also never been this dressed up without Charlie, and it made her think of all those school dances and proms.

She looked okay, she guessed, but she didn't feel okay. She felt nauseous and anxious and angry and sad.

May 2085: crazy for you, part 4

Natty and Charlie are 20. 


“Hey, Charlie, are you sleeping?”

“Mmmm, yeah. Is it time yet?”

“No, not yet. Do you want me to quiz you some more?”

“No, I think I got it. Are you bored? Do you wanna go?”

Spring was coming to an end and the sun was strong and bright again. “No, let's stay. We need some Vitamin D. It'll make us feel happier.”

“You aren't happy?”

“I didn't mean that,” she said. “I'm fine.”

May 2085: crazy for you, part 3

Josh is 18, Sophia is 20.


The water was cold still. Very cold. But Josh took that as a refreshing and exhilarating challenge and dove straight in, parting the water ahead of him in smooth strokes. Nobody ever would have guessed that he was the baby of his family, or that he'd always been the runt of his grade. Always the youngest, the smallest, the quietest. Only now, finally an adult, everyone else around him had stopped growing and he was able to catch up. He wasn't the smallest anymore, he made sure of that.

May 2085: crazy for you, part 2

Sophia is 20, Josh is 18, Leo is 21.


She should have noticed when all he would talk about the other night was how big his bed was, how soft, how springy. Or that he'd said they should meet up after class and go over their notes. She really thought he wanted to go over notes, but as they sat alone in the empty diner, they only talked instead, mostly about his super big bed...

He'd never actually seen her naked back in Freshman year. She hadn't seen him either. Not with their eyes anyway. There was kissing, lots of groping, barely past second base. He might have gotten a handful of boob and she might have felt his hard-on through his jeans, but then she met Benny, and it was over just as quickly as it had begun.

May 2085: crazy for you, part 1

Benny is 22, Leo is 21, Sophia, Charlie, and Natty are 20 years old, Josh is 18.

Soundtrack: "Crazy for You," by Madonna.


Charlie was in trouble. He was getting straight-A's in Biology, but he didn't want to be a Marine Biologist anymore. He did when he was fourteen, but wasn't fourteen anymore, and who doesn't change their mind about what they want to do with their life in almost ten years? Who knew what the hell they wanted to be when they were eighteen even?

So now he was a biology major and he didn't know what to do. In his second year, he's wasted a ton of his parents money on tuition, and they were going to be pissed. He'd have to start all over, that is, if he started over at all. Maybe he would drop out, and Natty would go on to date doctors and lawyers and other people who actually finished what they started.

May 2085: dresses

Ocean Michen is 16, Joey McCullough is 15.


Ocean hovered in Joey's peripheral vision, smiling silently, quiet and floaty. She was like a blue jelly fish.

"I know," Joey said. "My sister ditched your brother at the prom. My sister is Satan. It wasn't my fault and I don't care."

Joey's sister was graduating, finally and thank God. Not that Joey ever craved the spotlight, but maybe for once she could exist in this town without being known as "Ruby's little sister".

"I don't care either," Ocean said.