AUGUST 1978

"God, Junie, could you chew any louder?" Steven snorted on the other end of the phone.

Juniper obnoxiously popped her bubblegum into the microphone with a grin as Michael stepped back into her room with a bowl of dry cornflakes. He set them down on her nightstand after closing the door and (quite literally) hopped into the bed next to her.

"Who are you talking to?" Michael teased, snatching the phone away from her.

"Hey, Kelso," Hyde sighed.

"Man, are you tryin' to steal my girl or somethin'?"

"Nah, I already did that a few times."

"Oh!"

Juniper laughed. "Don't worry, Mike, I'm all yours." She took the phone out of his hands and climbed onto his lap, kissing him gently.

"If you guys are going to fuck, let me know so I can get Fez!" Hyde's voice was just barely loud enough for June to pull away and lift the receiver to her ear. She vaguely remembered Michael telling her about his new slightly-perverted friend.

"I'm going to miss you so much when I go home," Michael sighed.

"Yeah, when are you going home?" Hyde said.

Juniper frowned. She didn't know how she hadn't thought of it earlier, that at the end of the summer Donna and Kelso would have to leave.  It was pretty damn close to the end of the summer. She echoed Hyde's question. "When are you going home?"

"Oh," Michael said as if he hadn't thought of it either. "Probably... in a week or something? Just so we have time to settle back in."

"A week," June repeated. "And here I felt like we had all the time in the world."

"Forman was considering driving over there to look like a man and find Donna," Hyde cut in. "I encouraged him, of course, but only 'cause Red's going to be pissed."

When no one answered him, he coughed awkwardly. "I'll leave you two to... do whatever you're doing, then."

Juniper set the phone down and exhaled heavily.

"It's not that bad, Buggy," Michael mumbled, brushing her hair behind her ear. "It'll pass a lot more slowly than you think."

"Will it, though?"

"...Yeah," Michael said, unconvincingly. "Listen, I'll call you every day when I get home."

June smiled sadly. "That probably won't work. I'll be busy with classes and my parents would kill me if I spent that much time on the phone."

"Every week, then."

She pursed her lips together. "Long-distance relationships don't work out, Michael."

"Sometimes they do. We might as well give it a chance, right?"

"It won't work. We shouldn't drag this on for longer than we can."

Michael's face hardened uncharacteristically. "'Drag?' Do you feel like we're dragging this on? 'Cause if you do, we can break up-"

"No!" June rubbed her forehead and sighed. "Bad wording, sorry. How about this: we'll stay together until you have to leave, and when you go back to Wisconsin, we won't be... together anymore, but we'll stay in contact. Oh! I'll write to you! We can exchange letters!"

Michael nodded reluctantly. "Okay."

Juniper placed a hand on his cheek and gently stroked it with her thumb. "Okay."

"I'm going to miss you."

"I'll miss you, too."

"I love you, Buggy."

She grinned as butterflies erupted in her stomach. "I love you, too."

He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. They pulled back for a moment as time seemed to stop around them. They watched each other, each watched the other's eyes flicking over their faces, devouring any and every part of the memory. Especially their lips. They drew closer and closer to each other as if their first kiss was upon them, like the one they had all those years ago. 

Suddenly, Juniper launched herself forward and heavily pushed their lips together. His hands quickly reached up to her waist, gripping the bare skin under her blouse. He trailed kisses down her neck and bit down gently on her skin.

"Fuck, Michael-"

He shushed her quietly. "We're not alone in the house, Buggs."

She pushed him further down onto her bed so he was lying under her. "How many times do I have to tell you that I don't care?" she laughed breathlessly. "Let's make the most of our time together, yeah?"

He grinned slyly at her. "Yeah."

≛

Juniper closed her eyes and leaned her head against Michael's chest.

"I love you."

"You already said that."

"Didn't your parents teach you that it's important to tell the truth?"

He kissed the top of her head without another word.

"Junebug?" her father called from outside the bedroom door.

Juniper froze. "Yeah?"

"Can I come in?"

The two scrambled to get dressed. "I'm, uh... doing something at the moment! What do you need?"

"Oh," Jim said. "Oh. Oh, ew. Oh, my God, I-"

"Dad!"

"Sorry!"

"What is it that you need?" she sighed, stifling a giggle as Michael, still not fully-dressed, wrapped his arms around her waist and peppered kisses along her shoulders.

"I cut up some apples and I wanted to give them to you."

"Could you leave them outside the-" Her boyfriend's hand unexpectedly slipped into her jeans. "Outside the door."

"Yeah, sure."

"Thanks."

Michael's fingers found their way in between her legs and she grabbed onto his arm. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "You're going to get me murdered."

He smirked down at her. "I'm doing what you told me to, Buggs. About our time together? I'm making the most of it."

≛

(not) brought to you by that last line sounding like a hotel? trivago meme

(not) brought to you by lolz i love jim

(not) brought to you by i will - the beatles

brought to you by lissy <3