"Never Giving Up on Rick"

A short story for the 48 hour community challenge

My daughter loves Rick Astley, though he's her elder (and mine) just a bit. When I saw this week's 48 hour community challenge, I just squealed silently inside because ideas should just flow since this song's been discussed, and the artist, a lot in our home.

"Not Giving Up on Rick" by Adore lol♥

My daughter, Lucille, has a playlist that could confuse a time traveler. One minute it’s hyper pop, the next it’s lo‑fi beats, and then—without warning—Rick Astley bursts through the speakers like a time‑traveling uncle who refuses to be forgotten.

And the wildest part? Her entire friend group LOVES him.

Not ironically. Not as a meme. Not as a joke.

They love him the way people love comfort food or childhood blankets—deeply, sincerely, and with zero shame.

Our daughter just out of the blue one day let us know of her deep affection for this 80s pop icon. My husband and I recall tapping our toes a bit to his songs but he wasn't our favorite.

"Rick Astley's songs sound so deep!", she exclaimed.

I was a bit perturbed over hearing these words so unabashedly announced. My husband just smirked.

"Oh, really?" he rumbled in his smoky baritone, barely lifting his brows in response.

"Yes, they are!" "I just love his music and SO DO MY FRIENDS!"

Well, that's all she needed to say to solidify these words as gospel. Her friends agreeing on it, collectively, well, that was a feat indeed.

It started last fall, when Lucille and her friends were crammed into the back row of the school bus, sharing earbuds and scrolling through the chaos of their group chat. Someone dropped a Rick Astley clip—grainy, pixelated, gloriously 80s—and instead of laughing, they all went quiet.

“Wait,” her friend Brittany said. “This… actually slaps.”

“Right?” Lucille said, eyes wide like she’d just discovered a rare artifact. “He means it. Like, he MEANS it.”


Soon, their group chat was renamed The Rick Rollers. They made matching bracelets that said NGGU Crew. They started quoting the themes of the song like it was ancient wisdom:

Loyalty matters.
Hope matters.
Showing up for people matters.

They felt as if this was something they'd found again that was lost from the ancient 80s only to be rediscovered in 2025.

Her friends nodded like she’d just delivered a TED Talk.

Brittany added, “Everyone thinks Gen Z is cynical, but we’re actually hopeful. We WANT to believe people won’t ditch us the second things get hard.”

“And Rick doesn’t ditch,” Lucille said. “He commits.”

They all hummed in agreement, like a tiny choir of earnest teenagers.


A tribute.

The crowd went wild. Teachers laughed. Parents cheered. And somewhere in the middle of it, I realized something:

These kids weren’t clinging to nostalgia. They were claiming a promise.

A promise that loyalty still matters.
A promise that hope isn’t outdated.
A promise that showing up for the people you love is timeless. These are all themes we knew we believed in, especially knowing how long our marriage survived through the years.

After the show, Lucille ran up to me, breathless and glowing.

“Mom,” she said, “we’re never giving up on Rick Astley. Ever.”

And honestly?

I believed her.