Jordan and Colette: a history

This timeline was meant to be a little freewrite for my own purposes, but since it’s written, I thought I would share. This is what inspired “the boys“ flashback story. And it also inspired another adorable little flashback drabble that I posted on Tumblr. There’s not much shockingly new information here—most of this has been mentioned or discussed in one place or another, but some of it may have been easily overlooked or lost in the mess. Maybe somebody might find it interesting to read?  

Can you even imagine a time when Colette was carefree and happy? They were such babies. 💔

So it’s June 2078 when Jordan and Colette meet at a college party. He is 18, fresh out of high school, and invited by some friends (he didn’t go to college himself). She is 21 and about to start her third year of studying for a business degree where she intends to be super successful and rich. They begin dating (screwing) casually but often. The relationship is fun, but very superficial.

October 2078 — Colette gets knocked up with the twins. Jordan is instantly freaked out, especially a couple months into the pregnancy when they learn that it’s twins. Their short “relationship” ended right away. Colette was put off by his immaturity, and Jordan was put off by her pressure. Colette thought long and hard about abortion, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Spring 2079 — With great effort, Colette completes her third year of classes while pregnant. She keeps in touch with Jordan, but their correspondence is only to discuss their impending parenthood. She’s already written him off as a deadbeat, but she keeps the line of communication open because she figures her kids should know their dad. Even if he’s useless.

 

June 2079, Felix and Milo are born. Jordan is not there to witness their birth—Colette didn’t invite him, but he also didn’t ask to be there. He meets the boys when they’re a couple weeks old. He only offers to take them when his dad is available to help because the idea of being left alone with two newborns scares the shit out of him!

When the boys are 4 weeks old, this story takes place.   

Fall 2079 — Colette puts her degree on hold, being a single mother to twins. She has to focus on working to support them by herself, trying to find babysitters, having no family of her own nearby. Her family is alive, but unhelpful. Colette is the prideful type who won’t beg for help from them, and so she would rather do it on her own. She doesn’t have much help from Jordan, but she has his dad. Jordan is 19 and still waffling between jobs. Jordan’s dad sends money when he can.

Spring 2080 — Colette (23) is nagging Jordan to get a better job, then his father also starts to imply he should get some steady work. Jordan (20) feels burdened by the pressure of it all and that one stupid mistake when he was barely an adult should ruin his whole life, so he flakes out to go traveling.

Colette keeps in touch with his dad while he’s gone, who still sends money to her when he can and enjoys taking the boys when he’s not working. Mick doesn’t think she’s a nice girl, but he’s sympathetic to her situation, having raised Jordan as a single dad. And he feels responsible for the trouble his son caused her.

If there’s any truly new information I realized while writing this timeline, it would be how close Colette was with Jordan’s dad, and how much he contributed when she had nobody else to rely on.   

Summer 2080 — Jordan discovers credit cards, which they hand out too easily to young adults. He goes backpacking in Europe. The gear and hostels and restaurants and plane tickets are very expensive, but the adventure is too tempting to say no. Especially when huge responsibility looms at home. He works odd jobs to keep up with the minimum payments most of the time, but the debt is racking up.

2080-2081 — he comes home occasionally, and he attempts to see the boys when he does, but Colette is pissed that he’s off adventuring while she’s stuck looking after twins by herself and trying to build a career. She wants more committed involvement from him, but she can’t afford a lawyer to enforce child support or a custody schedule.

Winter 2082 — Jordan is home and traveling intermittently. While he’s backpacking in California, his dad dies. He hears about it from Colette. He’s 22, Colette is 25, the boys are 2.5. Jordan inherits what little equity his dad had in their home, but it isn’t much and it’s soon wasted in trying to keep up payments.

Summer 2082 — He can’t keep up with the mortgage payments on his own, and the house goes into foreclosure. He has really fucked up everything, and he feels lost and completely alone. The boys turn three. He doesn’t have a real bond with them—they knew their grandfather more than they know their dad. But in his desperation, he reaches out to Colette because those boys and Colette are the only family he has left in the world.

Fall, winter 2082 — As it turns out, Colette is working in real estate now. She sees an opportunity here. He wants to know his kids, and he needs help selling his dad’s house and doing something about his debts. Colette is clever and money-minded, but she also needs help. She wants consistent involvement from him so she can return to school to finish her business degree. He moves in with her platonically and becomes a stay-at-home dad, and Colette helps make his money problems go away.






This little drabble takes place. 

Jordan falls into fatherhood quite nicely the second time around. 

Also at some point in about 2083, he and Colette resume their sexual relationship. (Not gonna call it romantic, it was pretty purely just sexual—roommates and co-parents with benefits?) They’re both lonely, and neither of them have dated since they were first together (Colette because of being a single mom to twins, and Jordan because he’s terrified of getting someone pregnant again), and living together makes it easy to fall into again. They’re older and much more careful this time.

Summer 2084 — the boys turn five and start kindergarten, which frees up Jordan to find steady work. He starts working maintenance at Coolidge House County Inn.

2084-2085 — their relationship at this point is complicated, hot and cold, and likely codependent. She wouldn’t mind marriage as a financial benefit, but she wants to keep an open relationship (though when she’d find the time to date other men is another story). He doesn’t want that and doesn’t want to marry her, either. The sex is good, as far as he knows (he was a virgin before he met her). She can be bossy and cruel, which he tries to brush off (tries and sometimes fails). She reminds him constantly of how he ran off when the babies were little and how she fixed his whole messy life for him when he came back. He refuses to aspire to more, as she demands. He feels both indebted to her and also caged by these debts he will never repay and ideals he will never meet. But she was the only one who knew his dad, and they’re something of a family. He has become attached to his boys, finally, and the family they’ve made is not trivial. He enjoys not having to worry about things like bills and taxes. He doesn’t want to rock the boat.

Summer 2086 — Maria starts working at Coolidge House. It’s love at first sight for her, but he will remain oblivious for a while still. 

2087 — Maria’s crush continues to grow into what she will call “an impossible and tragic love.” Jordan notices finally, thinking she is adorable, warm, and obviously beautiful, but far too precious to be a romantic option for him. She is a widow and single mother, and she needs someone more reliable than he has known himself to be. He adores her, but he doesn’t want to bring his chaos into her life. So they become friends, and the friendship is easy, nourishing, and fun. He loves going to work because she’s there. Bonus, Colette likes the extra money, although she still nags him to aspire to something more.

January 2088 — their first real story on the blog. Maria is 26, Jordan is 28, and Colette is 31. 

July 2088 — my sweetheart stories begin.

September 2088 — boxes and squares stories begin.