Review: Same Time Next Year, by socact

This review was originally written for the Perv Pack's Smut Shack:

Same Time Next Year is the story that convinced my husband I have an online boyfriend. He was on vacation and couldn’t understand my desire to stay glued to the computer screen when I could be glued to him instead. What can I say? If I find the draw of a good story magical how can I resist the pull of one that leaves good so far behind that the details stick with me through my (shortened) night’s sleep and wake with me in the morning?

Same time Next Year is this kind of story. And, as with many amazing stories, STNY starts with a simple premise with which everyone is familiar –

Boy meets girl.
Boy loses girl.
Boy finds girl again… and again… and again… and – well, you get the picture.

Author, socact, takes the age old paradigm and turns it on its ear in delightful tale that will heat you up, make you laugh and induce enough heartfail to keep you crying through the night.

She begins her story by apologizing to the reader. “The idea isn’t original,” she tells us. She worries that we’ll find the concept “dumb.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Even readers who are familiar with the stage or screen version of Same Time Next Year will delight in this adaptation which starts at the end and ends in a way that will have you immediately wanting to reread.

Current day (and I don’t mean this in a metaphorical sense, the first day of the story is August 13, 2009) Edward Cullen is your typical high school senior: angsty, bored, itching to escape the “doormats” of high school. He doesn’t see how his life can begin until he escapes the “shitty, claustrophobic hell hole” that is Forks. He’s too aware of the relationships between his friends, the already paired up Emmett and Rosalie and the awkward singles, Jasper and Alice. The freakishly insightful Jasper has a plan for the Senior Class Trip (also known as “the fuckfest”) to Vancouver Island. He’s hoping that a little game of musical bedrooms will allow him the opportunity to finally seal the deal with the willing but undeclared Alice.

Key to this plan, of course, is Bella Swan. Bella is the new girl and Alice’s assigned roommate for the weekend. From the moment Bella steps onto the bus, tripping on the top step to faceplant in the aisle, Edward is captivated, “…this girl was fucking magnetic. She had some kind of freaky power over me and it was starting to piss me off.” Ever the rebel, Edward wants to ignore the new girl and resents her increasing power over this thoughts and feelings.

Similarly, Bella has no interest in Edward. She has him pegged just moments after meeting him. “You’re the doctor’s son. Wealthy, spoiled, bored with life. You’re tired of Forks and you know you can do better. And you will, I’m sure. You’re probably at the top of the class.” Edward rallies but is honest enough with himself to admit that while two can play at this game, Bella is winning.

At this point in my review you’re probably wondering if I’ve forgotten the title of this blog. No, I haven’t. I’m reviewing for the Perv Pack’s Smut Shack. So, where’s the smut? Well, I figured I’d wait you make as long as Bella and Edward do in this story.

STNY is really a short story, when it comes right down to it. The buildup is slow and steady. Establishing the groundwork for the relationship is key to creating the tension and framework for the second half. If you’re looking for fluff or wham, bam, thank ya’ ma’am, there’s plenty to be found in fanficdom. This story is not it.

That’s not to say it is without its many moments! Bella’s first time doesn’t happen until chapter 9, but it is worth the wait. Due to typical teenage nonsense, which socact kindly doesn’t force us to read through, it takes them months to finally decide that they belong together. Once they do we learn that, much like canon Bella and Edward, she’s the sexual aggressor in their relationship. Edward has managed to placate her with his “truly divine talent… for using his tongue in certain places.”

It’s been a year since our protagonists have met and they’ve returned to the resort on Vancouver Island to spend some quality time together. Bella and Edward are heading off to college; he to California, she in Washington. Neither is looking forward to their forced separation. During their time together at the resort they promise to “see [each other] here once a year, every year, this time, this place.”

I find it fairly amazing that socact was able to keep me so invested in these characters with the cards laid out on the table as they are. Basically, Bella and Edward agree to yearly booty calls, “No matter what we’re doing, who we’re with, where we are.” That’s right – this is planned infidelity, folks, plain and simple. Neither is so naïve to believe that their relationship, their love, can survive the 1000 miles between them, but neither is willing to give it up.

Yet there’s beauty in their illicit meetings. Throughout the years each panics that this will be the year the other doesn’t show. According to their agreement, “if one of us doesn’t come some year, then that’ll be it.” However, year after year they both arrive and sexy times ensue. We’re treated to bedroom sex, blow jobs in the shower, sex in the public dining room and up against a tree. Each year they delight us and each other with their abiding passion.

Hints are dropped during these rendezvous; hints that let you know that the outside world is intruding. She’s in a serious relationship. He enters a relationship with someone special. And then it finally happens; Bella knows that something is wrong, “As soon as I saw his face, standing there in the dark, familiar room, I knew something was different… His eyes were anxious, uncertain; was he nervous? Upset?” Finally he utters the words readers will be dreading:

“How long have we been coming here?” he asked me in a low, strained voice.
“Eight years,” I murmured.
“Have you ever regretted coming here?”
“No,” I said, almost in a whisper. “Never.”
“Is there anything that would make you stop coming here?” he asked.
I finally looked up into his emerald eyes, those same ones I had fallen in love with seven years ago. I tried to find an answer there, to understand what he was thinking, why he was torturing me this way. And I knew the answer to his question; it was automatic, and always had been. Nothing could make me stop coming here to see him. Nothing.

“No,” I said.

Again, he ran his hand through his tousled bronze hair, exhaling sharply.

“Nothing?” he asked.

“No,” I said, slightly more loudly. My voice was shaking so hard that I knew just one more word would break it.

“Bella…”

My heart broke into a million pieces. I cried. The knowledge I had of their illicit relationship had been like having a titillating secret, but now I regretted being invested in their HEA. The sex high I had been on for chapters was deflated and I read the rest of the story in tears. I had kept on hoping they’d find a way to be together. I kept going back, looking for hidden meanings, assurances that everything would be alright. I didn’t find them.

Surprisingly, this is not the end of their tête-à-têtes. If possible the following year is more heart rendering as they both discuss their happiness with their respective spouses after making love to one another. Despite the heartfail, or maybe because of it, Same Time Next Year is probably my favorite fanfiction period. I’ve recapped the story for just about anyone who will listen and that is something I never do. I believe that readers familiar with other incarnations of the story will appreciate socact’s treatment. For those, like myself, who were unfamiliar with the play and movie every step will put you through the emotional wringer. Trust me when I tell you that you will be rereading when you reach the end.

PS – socact posted an outtake to this story. DO NOT READ THE OUTTAKE. You’ll regret it. It will still be there when you’ve finished the story. Promise!