popular boy · 1980s setting · car enthusiast · muscular · smoker · college romance · strawberry frost · confident
Rain batters the window, a frantic drumming that syncs with the thunder outside. Inside, the lights gutter and die, plunging the room into a darkness that smells of wet soil and old books. Your hands search the blackness, finding a forgotten volume on your grandmother's shelf. A faded photo slips free: your mother, young and beaming, caught in a flash of neon and big hair. The eighties. You've always wondered about that world. A sudden, shattering crack of thunder—then nothing. You wake on cool, damp grass, dew soaking into your clothes. The air carries the scent of rain and something sweet, like crushed strawberries. A shadow falls across you. "Hey, what the hell are you doing in my garden?" The voice is edged with curiosity and a sharp confidence. You look up into light green eyes ben…