boxes and squares #5.3: hindsight is a bitch (3/3)

November 2088. Colette Marin is 31, Lorraine Marin is 59, Felix and Milo are 9, Gabby Roseland is 16, Sebastian Gilmore is 38. 

previously with Colette's mother: backstory // Mother's Day

content warning: cancer, sims behaving badly, infidelity, little bit spicy, no nudity.

Colette had sworn off dating forever after her last terrible failure. But the line for coffee today was absurdly long, and having no other idle interests than to browse the faces of desperate men, she opened up her dating app. There was something casually entertaining about swiping left, swiping right. Hot or not, like a game. She didn’t plan to connect with any of them. Lately, this app was only full of college boys. The only mature men were bald with beach balls for bellies. Not that a bald head couldn’t be very attractive on the right man, but these men weren’t attractive at all.

The line was still five people deep, all of them moaning about the places they needed to go.

Colette’s phone rang. At a glance, it was her mother, and Colette had no desire to answer it. She probably wanted money, or to turn her alliances against her brothers for some unearned sympathy, or maybe even a kidney. Colette wouldn’t be surprised if that ask came along someday.
There would be some ask involved in this conversation and Colette didn’t have the spirit for it today. She let the call go to voicemail, but her mother didn’t leave one. She called again. Then she called a third time.



Nobody calls three times without leaving a voicemail unless there’s something urgent to say. Oh, damn, it was going to be the kidney, wasn’t it? And there was no way Colette wanted to have that conversation with her mother in a line full of impatient people with nothing better to do but eavesdrop.

Colette let out an anguished sigh and gave up her place in line. She found a quiet corner in the lounge and called her mother back.

boxes and squares #5.3: hindsight is a bitch (1/3)

November 2088. Colette Marin is 31, Audrey Roseland is 48, Vicky Garth is 24, Darwin Hadley is 35, Felix and Milo are 9, Gabby Roseland is 16. 

previously: so, I have been seeing someone… // going on a date with a doctor, she said

optional background music: “fake plastic trees” as covered by Phoebe Bridgers

* warnings: long (as it goes lately...), bad decisions, briefly NSFW: obscured toplessness, spicy memories (text-based), and obscured self-pleasure

The boys were in school for another hour or two, and they had their activities after. Colette had no showings booked, and neither did Audrey. Nobody wanted to buy or sell a house a week before Thanksgiving.

Colette liked this swanky lounge by the water. She liked the smell of new renovation overlying its aged frame. The place served coffees and croissants and an assortment of music. By now, even Colette was tired of pumpkin spice everything, but peppermint wouldn’t be on the menu until after the holiday, so she ordered a frothy plain cappuccino. Audrey took one last pumpkin spice latte in her to-go cup. “Thanksgiving is next week,” she excused herself.

“You do you,” Colette said.

“Friend,” was a loose term for Colette, as in “keep your enemies closer.” But Colette didn’t think of Audrey Roseland as an enemy, either. A competitor, sometimes—there was only so much premium real estate to go around—but they tried not to step on each other’s toes. And that Colette tried at all for this woman probably made her more of a friend than Colette ever had before.

“I really loathe that he’s fucking someone before I am,” Colette confessed.

head over feet

June 2088. Vicky Garth is 23. Vale Akiyama is 27. Melissa Fortney is 21.

previously: Vale and Vicky prepare for a hot summer of music // with a monumental oops on her hands, Melissa makes a difficult decision to free up her future.

soundtrack: "Head Over Feet," by Alanis Morissette.

With dreams of freedom and sunshine and festival summer in her head, Melissa never imagined she’d be tempted by a summer job offer.

That is, until it turned out that her boss at Halston House Studios is actually best friends with Vale Akiyama, and Vale needed a roadie and media manager for his tour this summer.

Do you mean to say that Melissa isn’t just going to some festivals this summer…? She’s going to ALL the festivals this summer? And she’ll be paid to do it?

“Can you film in varying lighting conditions and weather elements? Can you edit videos and navigate social media platforms? Can you carry thirty—okay, fifty pounds of musical equipment?”

Hell fucking yes I can! Melissa thinks. Well, she’s never tried to lift fifty pounds before, but how hard can it be?

“Totally! When do we start?”

2nd quarter grades, winter 2087

This is the middle grade class at Fort Palms School, the largest and rowdiest school district in the country. Due to overcrowding and an extreme range of population demographics and clashing personalities, this district is rarely easy for teachers to manage. For a moment, all is calm in the science room. Let's just say that they're studying atmospheric science and this is the calm before the storm.