Free Me Being Me Is Exactly as Insane as You Being You by Todd Hasak-Lowy Page B

encouragement Darren’s way. Maggie turns to him and says, “ ‘Footprints,’ whenever you’re ready,” and then tells the other guys, “He’ll take eight measures.” And he does, he takes eight measures, and his solo is ten times better than it was in the jazz ensemble concert. In fact, he feels like a real jazz bassist for the first time, because, let’s face it, unless you’re playing fusion or something, you don’t play jazz on an electric bass.
    2.  They have loads of sex. Tons of it. An absolutely immense amount of full-on sexual intercourse. All the time. Multiple times a day. Around the clock, even. And a lot of this fantasy isn’t really a single fantasy, it’s just a bunch of images of them doing it, or Maggie in a state of being ready to do it, which means naked or getting naked. For some reason he keeps picturing her sweaty, or glistening—no, it’s sweaty, supersweaty, in fact, like she just finished a long workout at the gym, who knows why. And though it’s tough for Darren to concentrate enough to come up with a single scenario to develop, he finds himself getting pretty interested in a couple of related settings: a grassy field and a forest. Honestly, it’s the forest that really excites him, even though he has to admit it’s not exactly the most conducive setting for really getting it on. For making out, sure, but ultimately—at least, he’s pretty sure of this—you are sort of going to want to be on the ground, and the kind of forest he’s thinking about, with trees pretty close together and fallen braches strewn all over the place, even with a blanket it wouldn’t really work.
    Why in the world logistics are so stubborn in this fantasy but not the other he has no idea, but he’s nothing if not determined. So he creates for the two of them a small forest clearing, an intimate and smooth grassy patch surrounded by massive trees, magically mowed in the recent past, a place that not only offers a little bit of both settings, but also addresses the main shortcoming of the field, which was the way it just sort of had them doing it right out there in the open where pretty much anyone could see.

1 Additional Maggie-centric Fantasy Darren Has as He Enters School
    1.  Holding hands with her and walking quietly down a tree-lined city street. Preferably in the fall.

6 Particular Places Darren Searches for Maggie during the Eleven Minutes Before First Period Begins
    1.  Her locker, even though he doesn’t know exactly where it is, but he’s pretty sure it’s right off the math hallway over by the elevator
    2.  Edie Ross’s locker, which is definitely right around the corner from
    3.  His locker, because maybe she’s actually looking for him
    4.  The English hallway, since he’s pretty sure she’s in AP English, which he’s pretty sure Nate had first period back when he had it
    5.  The drinking fountain at the end of the English hallway
    6.  The library, and most of its aisles, though he gives up at around 500 in the Dewey decimal system, because what the hell would she be doing looking for a book on magnetism at 8:19 in the morning?

1 Place He Finally Finds Maggie, Who Might Have Actually Been Holding Hands with Tyler Weintraub, or Whatever the Fuck His Name Is, and Who Then Sort of Tries to Hide This, but Not That Much, Meaning She Doesn’t Really Care if Darren Saw, Which Either Means That It Doesn’t Actually Mean Anything to Her That She Was Holding Tyler’s Hand, or That It Does and So Too Bad for Darren, and He Kind of Gets the Sense It’s the “Too Bad for Darren” One, Since She’s Just Not Being Very Friendly with Darren at All, to the Point That Darren Can’t Even Get Himself to Ask in This Kind of Joking/Friendly/Intimate Way, “Hey, So How Was the Pie Last Night?” Which He Had Been Looking Forward to Asking