Early 1985
Cambridge, Massachusetts
"Oh God, I gotta finish this."
Conan was extremely stressed, his hands were shaking again. He borrowed tons of books from the library to work on his thesis. He didn't have a personal computer so he had to use public ones, around Harvard. He carried a million quarters around and a big floppy disk. He felt like he was going insane. His room was a mess, and both him and his roommate didn't bother cleaning it up. The mess reflected his state of mind at that crucial moment. Lindsey came to visit because Conan wasn't calling or actually thinking about anything else.
"Conan? What is this?" she said, as she arrived at the messy dorm.
"I can't talk now." Conan said in a robotic voice, as he read one of the books for his bibliography. "Busy."
"Why didn't you call me? I thought we could go out..."
"Sorry, can't." He kept reading.
Lindsey rolled her eyes. "Are you free tomorrow at least?"
He shook his head.
"Why are you being so dismissive of me?"
Conan ignored her for a second.
"Hey, I'm talking to you."
Conan looked up. He didn't want to argue, he was on a terrible place mentally, and he couldn't just shoo her or be mean to her like this. He knew it wasn't nice, but he decided to promise her they would go out the next day. She was happy about it, and Conan knew it was just about the places she wanted to go, and what she wanted to do again, but it was better than having her nagging on him, while he was still focused on his literary progeria theory. Conan was starting to think he needed a break from her.
He sat and continued reading. His roommate went out to eat. June came in half an hour after that, and was spooked by the state of Conan's room. Sheets of paper everywhere – all of them had incomplete writing, junk food scattered around the bed, hamburger wrappings... Conan took a while to notice she was standing there. She stared at him and Conan felt like he was caught doing something inappropriate. He sat straight as June approached him.
"Are you okay, Conan?" June looked concerned.
"I am... I mean... well, yes." Conan sighed.
She got really close to him and raised her eyebrows. "You're stinking."
He blushed. "Oh... oh, I'm sorry."
"Just... just go take a shower. I'll try to clean this stuff up."
Conan ran to the shower and June started to organize stuff. She stopped and read one of the pages he picked off the floor. Of course, his thesis. He must have been in a lot of pressure. He did seem like he was lost, she didn't know how many hours he had been locked in, or if he had leisure time. Nothing worse than losing his mind over academic work. She could hear the shower was running as she took chips and a cheese popcorn bowl off the floor. My god. She did the best she could. That would certainly attract ants and roaches.
"Hey June?" Conan called.
"What?" June turned to him, pile of papers in hand.
"Can you... turn around?"
June blushed. She could only see his head, wet hair, peeking though the bathroom's open door. She turned around and heard as he came out, looked for his clothes almost silently. She could smell him now, lovely as he always did. She smiled as she heard the fumbling, for some reason, knowing that she could just turn around and see Conan naked amused her. She had a smirk the whole time.
"Okay, you can turn back."
She turned to see Conan wearing a t-shirt and jeans, still barefoot. He smiled, a bit embarrassed.
"Well, this is better." June nodded.
He sat on his bed and noticed how much better the room looked. "Oh, you're fast."
"I still have to take everything out." June said, putting his notes on the nightstand. "Do you want to eat? I could bring you something so you don't eat rotten hamburgers off the floor."
He scratched his head. "No, I'm fine. I'm fine, I guess."
"Come on." she smiled. "Is your girlfriend going to try to murder me again?"
His eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"
She shrugged. "Not literally, but she doesn't like me."
Conan knew it, but he didn't want to give it away. Turns out, he was a terrible liar. "That's not true..."
June approached him and put her arms around his tall self, for a tight hug. His clothes felt soft and he smelled like soap. "It's okay."
She looked at him in the eyes. "Go to sleep, Wendy. Don't worry about the thesis for the rest of the night."
"You say like it's easy to..."
"It's not. I'm stressing myself over mine too. Just take it easy, okay?"
She got on her toes and kissed his cheek goodbye. He felt loved and warm, for the first time that day.
