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."


All around the apartment there was evidence of the life they'd shared here, things left behind like she intended to come back. A bottle of body wash which only made him think of rubbing that soap on her body, which made him mad and sad and infinitely lost. Maybe she never intended to come back for some stupid body wash. Maybe it wasn't forgotten, but just discarded. The worst part was that he still didn't know. Gabby was right, sometimes it felt like Natty was just pulling some long con on him. She just didn't want to do the dirty work, so she skipped out of town under the ruse of "a break". Did he really get dumped?

No, he didn't. He couldn't believe that. So dammit, they would have fun. Because if he let himself believe he'd been dumped then it might as well be true. And it couldn't be true.


"Watch this," he said to Gabby. "This game is sweet!"

"Can I play?"

"No, this is too hard for you."


Charlie's guy died, once, then twice. This game was stinking hard.

"Looks like it's too hard for you too," Gabby said.

This wasn't fun.

"Get dressed," Charlie said. "We're going bowling."



"Now we're having fun," Charlie said. "Look at how much fun we're having. Dumped people don't have this much fun!"

"I thought you said you didn't get dumped."

"I didn't, because look at how hard I'm gonna score."


He didn't quite score, though the girl in the next lane over in a green hospital gown seemed to.

But Gabby noticed Claude McCullough was here, and man, was he cute as ever!


Gabby liked his lips, and his nose, and the way he styled his bangs. He was like if Flock of Seagulls was thirteen and went to her school, but cuter. She'd had a crush on him since forever.

"Hey, you," he said, and she couldn't tell if it was just something he said or if he'd forgotten her name. She didn't care if he did. She'd help him remember it.


"Hey, you wanna come over here with me for a minute?"

"What's over there?"

"You know," he said. "It's just... not here."

She soon found out that what he meant. It was where her brother and his dad could see them, which was a pretty good place to make out. And she was kissing Claude McCullough. She couldn't even believe it. It was like the culmination of her entire pre-teen life.


"Gabby!" Charlie shouted, not wanting to get too close, not knowing what to do. "Just... stop doing that!"

They unhanded each other and he backed away quickly.

"Jesus," Charlie said.

Claude tried to defend himself. "Hey, take it easy. She kissed me first."

"It's okay," Gabby said to Charlie. "He's my boyfriend."

"Sorry, I can't really go out with you, Gabby," Claude said. "Everybody at school thinks you smell like frogs."


Frogs? How the hell did that gossip ever get started? Gabby had never touched a frog in her life, much less even knew what they smelled like. And Claude had said it it in front of Charlie, in front of everyone. Gabby was mortified. Claude got a squirmy look on his face and turned to run away.


"He's a dickweed," Charlie said to his sister. "Don't listen to him. You don't smell like frogs. I've never smelled any human being who smelled like frogs. But maybe try not kissing guys you met five minutes ago."

"I didn't meet him five minutes ago," she said. "His locker was next to mine for my whole sixth grade year. I loved him! He broke my heart! This is the worst summer ever!" Gabby started to cry.

Oh you can't be serious, Charlie thought, and it took everything he had in him not to shake the girl. What did she know about love? What did she know about broken hearts? She didn't know anything, but she knew enough to cry over it, so that must have meant it sucked. "Come on," he said. "Let's get out of here."

They got in the truck and started to drive.


"Gabby, if he really liked you, he wouldn't care what anyone else thinks."

"That's worse," she said, "because it means he didn't really like me. Maybe I want to pretend he did."

Charlie couldn't tell her not to pretend. Sometimes it made sense to pretend. Sometimes the truth was too hard to face.

"Do you wanna come to the scrapyard with me? I'll show you how to make the biggest bottle rocket you've ever seen. We'll take it to Mom and Dad's and use the yard."

"Fuck yes!"

"I don't think you're allowed to say that word," Charlie said. "And if I find you with your tongue down some boy's throat, I'm gonna tell Mom and Dad. Especially if it's a boy you found at the scrapyard."

"I'll keep my tongue firmly in my own mouth," Gabby said. "I promise."


They went to the scrapyard to find things they could explode. It was the most fun either of them have had in three weeks.

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footnotes: Lily started the rumor.