Time goes by fast. That was the thought that just kept resurfacing in the mind of Duncan Harris shortly after turning 21.
It seemed just like yesterday that he was laughing and having a good time with his friends in the abandoned trailer back during his teens, but times are now different, and much more sad.
Over time his friends, Yangzi, Bex, and even Wolf grew more distant. They weren't hanging out as often as they used to because they all said they were 'busy.' Already knowing what busy meant, Duncan could only nod his head and go on his separate way.
Time still goes by fast. It wasn't long after he had turned 21 that he heard the news while attending his second semester of Oakdale Community College (after barely passing the first), that a well known professor had died at the ripe, old age of 84.
Duncan wouldn't consider himself even a fraction of a mathematician that this old dude was, but it was simple enough math for him. 84 divided by 4 equals 21.
The exact same age he is now.
That scared him a little.
Twenty-one years of living on this earth and practically nothing to show for it. He still lives with his parents (thank god for free rent) and works for practically slave wages washing dishes at Dimaggio's.
He needed to do something more worthwhile with the time that he has on this Earth. He didn't know what exactly, but it needed to be something he can at least impress a few people with.
His solution came to him as a blessing in disguise: a homework assignment from Humanities. He had to write at least a thousand words explaining the rise and downfall of Nobunaga Oda. Some warlord from Japan in the 1500s. All Duncan knew about samurai was from the game Ghost of Tsushima and even that wasn't all the way accurate.
Not wanting his grades to fall any lower than they already are, Duncan sat down in front of his computer later that night in front of a blank Google Docs document and stared at it for what seemed like forever.
He had his textbook right beside him, but he barely paid attention in class. That meant he had to go over the material one more time than he needed to.
He might have heard somewhere, probably Tiktok, that people don't actually read things, they scan them. They see one giant block of a paragraph and they feel a slight temptation to skip it in favor of one or two sentences below it.
But since he was taught that each paragraph should have at least five sentences, it shouldn't matter.
A thousand words might seem like much, but the people who put this textbook together made it look so easy. It was almost as if like they were writing because they were passionate about the subject and got paid a lot because of how expensive the damn thing is.
That was the moment when inspiration struck him.
Writing.
Inexpensive. He can do it on his laptop. Convenient, he can write at any time. Fulfilling, he could create something that could amuse, and perhaps one day, inspire others.
Another coincidence, he hears his phone vibrate.
As he picks it up, he sees that he's got a text from Mia Abara.
-What are you doing tonight?
He shook his head and began texting back.
Before he knew it, weeks went by. Then months. He and Mia have been seeing each other more and more. Whether it be the mall, the movie theater, any kind of restaurant, each other's places to stay. She was even the first one besides Duncan's family to see the apartment he'd rented out for himself once he'd gotten a steady job at the docks. Turns out he didn't even need to graduate community college, so he dropped out.
He didn't get the chance to enjoy all life has to give him to the fullest however, as Duncan, now 24, heard a discomforting piece of news from Mia the next time they went out.
They were at Dimaggio's, Duncan's first workplace.
"You're getting transferred!? Where!?"
Mia tries to look at something else besides Duncan's face but gives up as soon as she found herself unable to.
"You're not gonna believe this… Daytona Beach! I know, I was just as surprised as you are. Sure, Oakdale's great and all but… I kinda wanna see more of what's out there, you know?"
When Mia was younger, she had thought a lot about practicing law and would eventually work as either a lawyer or at least a legal secretary, but with the amount of new diseases showing up in the world seemingly every other month, she told herself she would be better off in the medical field. The world has enough lawyers. Somebody probably had said that somewhere.
Now, she's on her way to become a nurse practitioner. All thanks to countless hours of hard work, both in the books and in the hospital, as well as the people, especially Duncan, who have supported her every step of the way.
But now it seems that her days of living in Oakdale have come to an end. A new chapter awaits in her life now that she's in her mid 20's. It's one that she's a bit scared of since now she has to face it alone.
It was then that Duncan's words snapped her out of her line of thinking.
"Yeah, that's pretty cool that you have an opportunity to go somewhere like that. You know… if you would like I could… accompany you there for a bit."
That put a smirk on Mia's face. Just the thought of her and Duncan walking on a beach was enough to excite her. "You and me in Daytona Beach, huh? Well, I suppose that's not the dumbest idea you've ever shared with me."
And so it was decided. Duncan ended up going to Daytona Beach with Mia and went back to Oakdale shortly after…
Only for him to return back to Daytona Beach for good this time. Later that year, he's now newly employed and had married Mia at a walk-in chapel. She had almost instantly said yes to his proposal. Friends and family wished them good luck.
For them, things were good…
For a while.
This is the best that I could do as of this moment. I told myself I had to get something down on the paper before leaving.
When Duncanville teases the future episode where Duncan and Mia end up getting divorced, that's when I'll start working on this story again. Right now, I can't invest in something my heart just isn't in. There's something else I want to work on.
Hopefully, Season 3 will be arriving quicker than any of us will have anticipated.