In Five Years

If Kevin caught them, they’d be in massive trouble, but the summer night was warm and the glow from the candles made everything gold, and it was easy not to care.

“Where do you think you’ll be in five years?” Bob asked. He had his trig textbook open on his lap and a notebook full of half-finished problems next to his knee, but he was lying back on the bed, hands tucked under his head.

Carolyn had a secured transactions textbook propping up her feet, and she was stretched out on the bed opposite Bob so her head was beside his. “As soon as I’m old enough I’m taking the bar, remember? So I’m probably going to be a lawyer.”

Bob turned his head and nuzzled her hair, felt her smile against his shoulder. “Every now and again I forget how smart you are.”

“Not smart,” Carolyn said, like she always did. “Just lucky. Besides, you’re the musical prodigy, not me.”

“Hardly a prodigy.” Bob closed his eyes and shifted closer to her, felt her tuck herself against him. Her skin was soft, always had been, even back when she’d been a staff-wielding tomboy who put all four brothers to shame during karate training. Some days he wondered what the hell he’d done to deserve her. His friends back in Tennessee were fond of reminding him that she was worthy of more than his lame home-schooled self, but then he was sixteen and on top of the world. “I just play in a band.”

“To stadiums full of thousands of screaming girls every night.” Carolyn laughed.

“You know there’s only one girl who matters,” Bob said, and Carolyn shoved his shoulder.

“Hello Hollywood cliché!”

He silenced further argument with a slow kiss.

Carolyn was smiling as she pulled back. “Well put, Mr. Summers.”

“I learned from the best,” he said, and couldn’t help but smile.

Carolyn reached out and brushed a lock of hair from his eyes. “What about you? Where will you be in five years?”

“Probably still performing and recording with my brothers.” Bob shrugged. For some reason, it seemed like a bleak future, even though when he was younger it had been the greatest dream in the world, to always make music. If he was always on the road, how would he see Carolyn, who’d be a partner in some fancy law firm in some big city far away?

“Where do you want to be in five years?” Carolyn asked.

Bob closed his eyes and sighed. She knew him too well. “In five years, I want to be just like this, only no textbooks and no homework, no parents just down the hall ready to boot one of us out the window for breaking curfew.”

As if on cue, there was a thump at the door, and Scott said,

“Shelley wants to check your math!”

Bob swung around and tugged Carolyn into his arms for a kiss. Around them, the candles guttered out.

(500 words - "So New" by Cillian Murphy)