December 2088. Colette Marin is 31, Jordan Graham is 29, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Felix and Milo Graham are 9.
previously: what if we had the most amazing life together?
Some angels on Christmas Eve. ❄️🌟❄️
bad girlfriend (B&S intermission book 5.5), part 2 of 7
December 2088. Lou Corelli is 29, Jamie Pendleton is 30, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Felix and Milo Graham are 9.
“Jess asked me what I’m doing with my place today,” Jamie said. Lou didn’t pause her typing to answer, “Why do you have to do anything with it?”
Jamie let out a small sigh. You will never get a proposal from this woman, she thought, and it was probably why she kept holding onto that apartment. “Since I’m hardly there. She wants to know if I want to rent it out to them. Like, officially.”
“Them? As in, they’re moving in together?”
Jamie shrugged. “It’s not so surprising. They’ve been dating over a year now.”
“Dating.” Lou snickered. “Remember all the months they made us keep it a secret? Ian-fucking-Thompson? It’s just so weird. We’ve known him since we were kids.”
“We’ve known each other since we were kids. How is it different?”
“Jess asked me what I’m doing with my place today,” Jamie said. Lou didn’t pause her typing to answer, “Why do you have to do anything with it?”
Jamie let out a small sigh. You will never get a proposal from this woman, she thought, and it was probably why she kept holding onto that apartment. “Since I’m hardly there. She wants to know if I want to rent it out to them. Like, officially.”
“Them? As in, they’re moving in together?”
Jamie shrugged. “It’s not so surprising. They’ve been dating over a year now.”
“Dating.” Lou snickered. “Remember all the months they made us keep it a secret? Ian-fucking-Thompson? It’s just so weird. We’ve known him since we were kids.”
“We’ve known each other since we were kids. How is it different?”
bad girlfriend (B&S intermission book 5.5), part 1 of 7
It was the spring of 2068, the year Maria was six and Lou was nine, the year they both decided they would drag their over-sized stuffie everywhere. Even, to their parents dismay, all the way to North Carolina on the family’s spring break trip to the Smokey Mountains.
Neither of them knew a lot about love that year, but they knew they loved Pixel. Lou hugged it enthusiastically, then kissed its furry head.
Maria was confused. “Did you just kiss a bear? Are you gonna marry him?”
“Pixel is a girl, and she’s not a bear,” Lou said.
“What is she then?”
“I don’t know, maybe a goat. Or a monster. She has a tree growing out of her head.”
Maria pursed her lips. “I don’t think you can marry a monster.”
“Duh, you can’t marry a goat, either!” Lou shrugged. “Then maybe I won’t marry anybody.”
postcards from a fluffy moment of respite (and December birthdays)
December 2088.
What do we need a sister for?
Because taking sides in a heated snowball fight is no fun when there’s only two.
What do we need a sister for?
Because taking sides in a heated snowball fight is no fun when there’s only two.
boxes and squares #5.6: fuck you, thank you
November 2088. Colette Marin is 31, Jordan Graham is 28, Felix and Milo are 9, Maria Boone is 26.
Colette wouldn’t find them a better dad, because dating sucked and she was bad at it. That was what she tried to tell herself, anyway. But, if she really wanted to be honest, she wouldn’t find them a better dad because they adored him to the ends of the earth, and he was coming home, and there was nothing more these boys wanted in the world.
For two days, he wouldn’t answer her phone calls or texts. But at some point he answered the boys, and they filled her in on the news. She didn’t have any way of knowing for how long they knew before her. “Dad is coming home!”
She would never win against that, because their adoration wasn’t up to her. She thought she should have been mad about it, and yet, there was also some relief in losing that battle. It took too long to realize that maybe she never should have been trying to win in the first place.
Colette wouldn’t find them a better dad, because dating sucked and she was bad at it. That was what she tried to tell herself, anyway. But, if she really wanted to be honest, she wouldn’t find them a better dad because they adored him to the ends of the earth, and he was coming home, and there was nothing more these boys wanted in the world.
For two days, he wouldn’t answer her phone calls or texts. But at some point he answered the boys, and they filled her in on the news. She didn’t have any way of knowing for how long they knew before her. “Dad is coming home!”
She would never win against that, because their adoration wasn’t up to her. She thought she should have been mad about it, and yet, there was also some relief in losing that battle. It took too long to realize that maybe she never should have been trying to win in the first place.
boxes and squares #5.5: kill the fairytale (2/2)
November 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4.
content warnings: grief, despair
He went dark when he was upset, like he vanished from the whole world, Maria’s world included. And she craved a text, a note, anything. She could give him space. She wasn’t a clingy girlfriend, except that she yearned for some sort of tether, some connection, and maybe that made her clingy after all. But she didn’t want to nag. She didn’t want to be exactly what he was running from in the first place.
She didn’t need him to tell her that it was Colette on the phone. His whole body announced it with tension and grit. The last she heard of him, his voice boomed with a desperation she’d never heard before. He had already walked away from the campsite and she couldn’t hear his words, only the echo of his pleading on the rocks. Mostly she saw the way he shriveled into himself, growing smaller and smaller, until eventually, he stopped arguing back. Maria didn’t need to hear what Colette said to know it was ugly.
“Is he coming home now?”
“Soon,” Maria told her, which was only a hope, of course. She had no way of knowing where he was or when he was coming home. It had been three hours. The last time this happened, she didn’t hear from him for almost two days. But things were different now, and she couldn’t possibly wait that long before she started to panic. At the same time, she had JoJo to think about so panic wasn’t even an option.
JoJo was too riled up to go to bed, but she had finally agreed to put on her pajamas. She was too riled up to even wait inside. Outside, a sharp chill swept across the north Nevada desert, making clear that it would be December in a matter of days. Maria lit the campfire, and they sat beside it.
He went dark when he was upset, like he vanished from the whole world, Maria’s world included. And she craved a text, a note, anything. She could give him space. She wasn’t a clingy girlfriend, except that she yearned for some sort of tether, some connection, and maybe that made her clingy after all. But she didn’t want to nag. She didn’t want to be exactly what he was running from in the first place.
She didn’t need him to tell her that it was Colette on the phone. His whole body announced it with tension and grit. The last she heard of him, his voice boomed with a desperation she’d never heard before. He had already walked away from the campsite and she couldn’t hear his words, only the echo of his pleading on the rocks. Mostly she saw the way he shriveled into himself, growing smaller and smaller, until eventually, he stopped arguing back. Maria didn’t need to hear what Colette said to know it was ugly.
“Is he coming home now?”
“Soon,” Maria told her, which was only a hope, of course. She had no way of knowing where he was or when he was coming home. It had been three hours. The last time this happened, she didn’t hear from him for almost two days. But things were different now, and she couldn’t possibly wait that long before she started to panic. At the same time, she had JoJo to think about so panic wasn’t even an option.
JoJo was too riled up to go to bed, but she had finally agreed to put on her pajamas. She was too riled up to even wait inside. Outside, a sharp chill swept across the north Nevada desert, making clear that it would be December in a matter of days. Maria lit the campfire, and they sat beside it.
boxes and squares #5.5: kill the fairytale (1/2)
26 years ago: Mick is 38, Adelaide is 30, Jordan is 2.
content warnings: implied terminal illness/cancer, verbal abuse, grief, intrusive thoughts, passive suicidal ideation
It was supposed to be such a beautiful life…
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