LCU, life in present tense, part 1

LCU, spring semester, 2083 (part 1 of 3). Last semester, fall 2082.*soundtrack (for all three parts), "Lifeboats," by Snow Patrol*

Her mother said she wasn't cut out for this, that she was spoiled rotten, that being in the military would hit her like a brick wall. Keri knows that she's been spoiled, and she just couldn't resist throwing back, "Well whose fault is it if I am spoiled!?!"

Her mother didn't speak to her after that.

They had one terrible spat about it, and then her mother went silent. Keri knows this silence doesn't mean acceptance, and it certainly isn't approval, but instead it is coldness and waiting. Waiting to see what will happen, what will she choose to do? After all, Keri Riley-Kim is a full grown woman now, and entitled to make her own decisions, among everything else she's entitled to.

But she only gets her father on the phone these past couple of months, and surely her mother, when she is home, is seeing a name on the caller ID and handing it straight over to Bryson each time. Keri wants what she wants, but it doesn't stop her from feeling icky inside. Keri says, "Maybe you might send mom this time, if she's home?"

"You know she's busy," Bryson says. But she needs him to come watch Lillian so she can go to her yoga class, and then real class, and could he pick up some diapers on the way?

"Daddy, please," she adds, and Bryson comes running.

Keri had her six-week postpartum physical a couple weeks ago, and she's been approved for physical activity. She's been doing a little training, and she feels great, fit, healthier than ever. Now all she has to do is take the plunge, and she has an appointment with a recruiter this week.

So Keri runs off to meet Justin for yoga class, and her father did bring some diapers, a couple new baby toys, a few cans of formula, and who can resist buying those precious little baby girl outfits, even if she'll never wear everything before she outgrows it? Bryson complains about being bored in his retirement anyway. He sees nothing wrong with helping out his daughters, when they need it, or even if they just want it, and there's certainly nothing wrong with spoiling these precious little grandbabies!

Justin meets her at The Lotus for Corbin's afternoon yoga class. They've been taking this class together for a few weeks.

"I don't get it, all the hype," she says. Then whispering, "To be quite honest, he has a big nose. You have a good nose, babe."

"Um, thanks," Justin says.

She never gained much weight in her pregnancy - she hired a nutritionist, and a prenatal exercise therapist, and she ordered these fancy imported vitamins on the internet. Corbin said they couldn't hurt, but they're honestly complete bunk.

But she just had the baby, and he's been taking this class with her for four weeks now, and still he manages to feel like the wet noodle of the two. She was right when she said she's no wallflower. She's strong and durable, maybe even stronger than she realized herself.

Justin has been taking this class with her because even if Corbin is his best friend, and best man at their wedding, Justin knows what happens to women around him, the way they lose all bearing on the world as it exists. He doesn't want that to happen to Keri, but to his surprise and relief, Corbin really seems to have no impact on her. It would only make sense, of course, that Keri Riley-Kim is absolutely unmoved by the man all the other girls are fawning over.

Corbin says, "So, I met someone."

Justin says, "You always meet someone."

Keri takes her leave from this conversation to relax in the sauna.

"I'm going crazy," he says. "I actually met her about two months ago."

"Yeah, yeah?" Justin says, but then he stops acting like a gossipy teenage girl.

"She's married."

"Oh," Justin says. "Well, that's no fun."

"I think I'm going crazy. I've only seen this girl once, and I've been trying to forget her, but then I keep having these dreams. We're in the lounge of my building, me and her, and this voice - you're going to think I'm crazy."

"I already do..."

"So this voice was omniscient," Corbin says. "Like she knew me, and everything I was thinking, but it was coming from nowhere, like the voice of the creator, like god - if god was a woman and sounded mousy."

"The voice of god is mousy?"

"Yeah," Corbin says. "And we were in the lounge, it was so vivid, so real, and almost sexy, but weird, like we were in this experiment and everyone was watching."

Justin says, "This one time, I had a dream I was dancing on stage in this chicken costume, but it wasn't a performance so much as an audience I was leading, and these people watching were my minions, dressed up in egg costumes. Get it? I was the chicken and they were my eggs?"

"You were a hen, then?"

"What?"

"A female chicken. The hens lay eggs," Corbin says.

"Oh," Justin says.

And then they both decide to forget this conversation ever happened.

Corbin says, "Hey, you wanna throw a football around?"

"Yeah," Justin says. "But dude, will you go put a shirt on or something?"

***

April runs into Justin sometimes on her way over to the art building. In truth, April likes to run into Justin on her way to art class - he's adorable! April has had crushes on all kinds of people, men and women alike, but she can't say she's ever had a crush on a married one before. But then, she figures there's a first time for everything! Though it's bizarre to think of him as married, since he's only a few years older than she is and she couldn't fathom the idea of marriage at this point in her life, or ever.

He's telling her about the war, about Keri, his wife, who wants to go fight in it.

"I wonder how big they are," he says, "You know, short, or tall..."

"Aliens?" April says. "Nope, I just don't believe in them. Not until we see them, why aren't they showing us pictures? I think it's probably a conspiracy or something."

Justin says, "You think my wife is going off to fight for a conspiracy?"

"Oh, well no offense or anything," she says.

The spring has brought little warmth so far, and certainly not much sunshine. Most days there is nothing but heavy dark oppressive clouds, and the freshmen are feeling the weight of them, like being smothered, like something just needs to break.

Tyler says, "These damn clouds! I wish it would just rain already and be done with it!"

Beau wonders, "We don't have to go to class, do we? I think I'm dropping that class anyway. I'm changing my major to business, I think."

"Then are you going to business class?"

"No, I don't think so," Beau says. "But I know what else we can do..."

April stands by while he climbs up onto the couch. "Look at this," he says. "I just got the ceiling! Get up here!"

She gets up there, shouting, "Fly like an eagle, baby!"

April obviously took gymnastics as a kid.

April gets ceiling.

Beau gets a peek at her panties.

And this dude has apparently never jumped on a couch before!

April says, "What, are you like the couch police or something? Are we in trouble? It was his idea."

"Juggling is allowed," she says.

"Definitely allowed," he says.

"Hey," she says, looking at him like an old friend she hasn't seen in a decade, even if she's spent every minute with him since breakfast. "Come hang out with me."

It's just Evie, his girlfriend. She's a sweet girl, sure, but April feels like her best friend has been stolen away. He certainly hasn't been in her bedroom recently, since every time he did come in here to talk to her, she tried to coax his pants off. She's sorry about that, it's just that he's so darned cute. It's just that she was cut off from him so fast, so abruptly.

"You're allowed to talk to me," she says. "You're even allowed to sit on my bed if you want. I promise I won't try to have sex with you."

He sits down on the bed. "Are you jealous?"

"No," she says, with an incredulous lilt. She's not jealous. She just misses him is all. "Just talk to me for a little while," she says.

"Fine, scoot over," he says.

She scoots over. He eases himself into the spot where she was, the bedsheets already warm from her body heat. Her warmth is inviting. He asks her, "So what do you wanna talk about?"

"How about these clouds?" she says.

"They're pretty cloudy," he says.

***

Justin is getting into his pajamas one evening that week when Keri comes at him in a way he's both intrigued and terrified.

She says, "Babe, let me see something," as if she had to ask permission to touch her husband. She feels his arm, his bicep, his shoulders. She looks intrigued and terrified.

"Babe, you look great!" she says, pulling his shirt over his head and throwing it to the floor. She runs her hands all over him. "You better be good while I'm gone."

It's laughable to him. Who ever had a crush on silly Justin Kim? "Who, me?"

"Yes, you," she says, "You're adorable. That yoga is totally working!"

He was hoping to shape up a bit before she left, so she would have a nice memory of him. He's always been a bit apprehensive about his average stature, his soft middle, and what he didn't have in physique he would make up for in sense of humor and charm. With a best friend like Corbin Gray, and a brother-in-law like Micah Buchanan, a guy has to find ways to stand out.

It's that humor and charm that drives him to sweep her off her feet, quite literally, and carry her to bed. She's not a small woman, muscular and nearly as tall as he is, not that he would say it, but Lord, he can make it to the bed! And sure, he's showing off a bit. She said this same thing to him before he went to study in Takemizu, "I want you motivated to come back to me."

Tonight and maybe every night until she goes, he'll motivate her to come back to him. He'll leave his impression in her mind as if she could ever forget.

She's high maintenance, and he's a hard worker. There's a prize for him in fulfilling her, seeing this princess of a woman soften and melt in his hands.

To melt a woman like this, to give her exactly what she wants, exactly what she needs, every single time, for an ambitious young man like Justin is fulfilling in itself.

In the morning, they have breakfast while Lillian bats at her dangling toys. Her appointment with the recruiter is less than a day away. Keri knows what she wants, but she also knows everyone in her life is opposed to it. She's thinking about what her mom said, that she's not cut out for this, that she's too spoiled and entitled to make it in the military. But if she doesn't do this, she can't imagine what else she might do with her life. What else is there, some administrative job in her father's company?

Justin says, "Or you could join the military after the war is over."

She says, "Do you realize how lame that would make me?"

"I guess," he says. "I had to try."

Even him, she wonders. Does he think she's not cut out for this? Does he think she's getting in over her head?

"Do you think I'm not cut out for this?" she asks him. "Am I only getting myself into trouble?"

"I think you have to do what you're told," he says. "You could get in trouble if you don't follow your orders. And you don't like orders, so yes, it worries me."

"I don't want you to get hurt, but it's not because I don't think you can handle it. But I don't know, if you're not cut out for this, then what are you cut out for?"

"I'm a spoiled rotten trust-fund princess," Keri says. "What am I cut out for?"

"I think you can do it, if you try, if you do what you're told. You're more than just a spoiled rotten trust-fund princess. I don't want you to go, but I know that you will and you'll kick some ass out there."

"Awww, babe," she says.

She's never felt bigger in her life.

*** to be continued ***

notes: this is going to be an epic one this semester. These poor kids have a bit more going on than the average college students. It will be split into three parts, and well, maybe four parts if you count that the prom update wraps things up after :)

Keri's wants when I first loaded their house... think she feels bad about her mom much? lol!

And I only just realized that both of Bryson's girls had girls of their own - now he has four little princesses to spoil :)

And awww, I finally found one who fawns over her own husband in the presence of Corbin Gray! Keri just doesn't know what everybody sees in Corbin - she's barely giving him two bolts :)