1984
New York City, New York
"Lindsey is starting to get pissed." Conan laughed, as both he and June walked around Times Square.
"Well, you keep being jailed, Conan." said June, amused.
"Almost... jailed. Zucker such a boring guy. I hope I never see him again after I graduate."
The Harvard Crimson and the Harvard Lampoon had a history of rivalry. Their writers couldn't stand each other. Lampoon writers considered Crimson writers uptight assholes, without a sense of humor; and the Crimson writers thought Lampoon writers were incompetent goofs. Conan planned some stunts on them over the years, and one of them included making porn hotline pamphlets with the number of one of the students of the Crimson, Jeff Zucker, and putting them everywhere. He didn't think it was funny.
Conan once decided to steal the Crimson newspaper as soon as it was printed, seriously upsetting the writers. Jeff then had no option but to call the police, who came to arrest the students at the Lampoon, and Conan had his rights read to him for the second time. Tired of all of it, he decided to hand the newspapers back, because it's better than being jailed one more time. Since his rights had been read, he was technically arrested for a brief period of time. Still, it was hilarious.
"You have to stop." June laughed. "Don't you have something else to do at Harvard, Conan?"
"Well... I already have the idea for my thesis. So yeah, I may have to stop everything."
"Oh, yeah. I'm thinking about mine too. How is it going?"
"I haven't started... yet. But I will soon. I still have a year to go."
"Hi, June!" said a young man, among the crowd.
"Oh, hi Jake." said June. Conan observed as this guy gave June a hug.
"This is my friend, Conan." June said.
"Oh..." Jake seemed a bit deflated. "Hi."
Conan nodded at Jake. "Nice to meet you."
June nodded back and turned his attention to June. "So, are you going to Nina's party tomorrow?"
"I don't know... maybe. I mean... I don't drink." June lightly shrugged.
"Oh, you didn't really have to. It's gonna be nice!"
"Yeah, yeah. Okay. I will." June smiled at him.
Conan observed everything with a smirk. Jake was a brunette, skinny guy, shorter than Conan himself, and a few inches taller than June. He looked so interested, and she appeared not to notice. When they finally said goodbye to each other, Conan saw Jake awkwardly disappear into the crowd and June let out a sigh.
"He likes you." Conan looked at June.
"No shit." June laughed.
"I thought you didn't notice."
"I did!" she nodded. "I'm not into him though. He's lovely but I don't see us dating."
"Why not?"
"I don't think I know how... to date I guess."
He raised his eyebrows for the second time that day. "I don't either and I got myself a girl."
"Well... you're..."
Conan stopped walking. That same weird feeling he had on Halloween came back again. "...you're really cute."
"Really?"
She smiled. "Really."
Conan tilted his head. "What makes you think you're not?"
"You're just being nice."
"I'm not... you are incredibly beautiful, lady."
June blushed. Conan noticed it, and he wondered if it was out of shyness or she could just... no, she wouldn't be attracted to him at all, would she? She's way out of his league, and he always thought that. She didn't seem like she knew how beautiful she was, and Conan think this was for the best. She wasn't at all cocky, she was just way too nice. He was afraid to tell her how amazing he thought she was, and he would occasionally say it, but he wished he did it more.
"You're too kind." she smiled. "We should just eat, freckle boy."
"Oh." he deflated. "They look that bad, huh?"
Conan didn't like his freckles, or his red hair or his extreme paleness. Being exposed to the sun was torturous. He didn't tan, and he had excessive redness as well. Every emotion he had went to his cheeks immediately. He didn't like to be mocked for it but he never found a solution to it. Dyeing hair? He would only look worse. He was a six-foot-four tall freak. But no, not in June's eyes, he wasn't. Lindsey didn't really have a problem with it... but it's not like she expressed how attractive he was either. Conan missed that.
"They look lovely, you goof." She smiled. "I like them."
"It looks like I'm sick."
"Well." she said, a strange serenity on her voice. "You'll only truly love someone when you're in peace with yourself."
"Oh, who are you quoting? Some inspirational poet...?"
She giggled. "Mom."
"Of course a criminal wouldn't know who I'm quoting."
He sighed. "Hopefully my crime days are over today."
