90s Girl

by Mia Archer

  Sure it wasn’t quite the same as the past version. There were places where the thing had been weathered over the years, and the front panel that’d once depicted a cartoonish rendition of some fighter jets making the world safe for freedom and democracy was faded because of a few decades of people putting their drinks on the thing and letting the moisture do its dark work.

  Otherwise it was exactly as I remembered it from twenty years ago. Exactly as I remembered it from just a half hour ago, even though it felt fucking weird to think about something happening both twenty years and thirty minutes ago.

  Only that’s what it was starting to feel like had happened. It was enough to make me wonder if it really was all a dream, or if there was something more going on here. I was starting to get the same sort of weird feeling I’m sure was going through Marty McFly’s head right about the time Mr. Sandman started playing as he stared at a Bizarro world version of his hometown that should’ve been impossible.

  “What the fuck is going on here,” I muttered.

  Something fucking weird. That’s what. I was so preoccupied by staring at everything around me in the cockpit that I didn’t notice movement to my side until the curtain flew open.

  For a terrified moment I thought it was James, even though that was pretty impossible. I screamed, and that caused the two voices on the outside to scream right along with me. Only those were female voices. Not some dude looking to peek in on a couple of girls making out.

  Not that there could be a couple of girls making out in here. Not anymore. Not when the other girl was a couple of decades in the past. Sure she might still be out there somewhere if this really was time travel, but she sure as fuck wasn’t in here with me.

  “You okay in there?” Candace asked.

  “We saw you hanging around over here looking all sad and figured we should check on you,” Felicity said.

  I wondered if I should breathe a word of what had happened tonight, but decided against it. No, they’d think I was crazy and I’d wind up in the hospital getting checked out for a concussion I was starting to think I hadn’t gotten after all.

  I’d already avoided that fate in the past, assuming that really was the past, and I didn’t want to deal with that now that I was back in the future.

  “I’m not feeling well,” I lied. “I’m actually thinking of calling it a night. What would the two of you think of that?”

  The look they exchanged told me they didn’t like that idea at all, but the way they sighed and rolled their eyes said they were going to go along with it because that’s what friends were for.

  14

  Back Home

  I stumbled into the house. I was having a little trouble on my feet, and I chalked that up to the weirdness of being on roller skates for most of the night.

  It was a touch difficult to go from walking to rolling around and then just when I was getting used to rolling around I’d gone back to walking around. Basically everything felt like it should be moving a lot faster when I moved my feet.

  “Well hello there,” Aunt Olivia said.

  I wheeled towards her voice and my head spun again. It was enough to make me wonder if I wasn’t dealing with some delayed onset side effects from that hit I’d taken. I was pretty sure it wasn’t a concussion, but who knew.

  Maybe it was a delayed side effect from traveling through time.

  “Aunt Olivia!” I said. “I’m surprised you’re up this late.”

  “Have a good time tonight?" Aunt Olivia asked, the barest hint of a smile playing across her face.

  I looked at that smile and jumped to some conclusions about what she thought I was doing. I held some hands out in front of me to make sure she knew this wasn’t what she thought it was, but it didn’t help that when I did the whole world spun around me. Which is totally what the room would’ve been doing if I’d been drinking earlier.

  “It’s not what it looks like,” I said, taking a stumbling step forward. “Damn. I was on skates tonight, but I guess I didn’t realize how much it would mess me up.”

  Aunt Olivia was next to me in a flash. She put her arm around me in a familiar gesture that always made me feel safe, and guided me to a chair. Then she had a seat on the other side and gave me a look that had me thinking we were about to have a long talk about drinking responsibly.

  “Listen,” I said. “I don’t know if I need to do a breathalyzer or what, but I promise you I haven’t had anything to drink tonight.”

  Aunt Olivia arched an eyebrow. “Really now? Did you ever stop to think that you jumping straight to protesting about how you didn’t have anything to drink tonight might only make me more suspicious that you did, in fact, have something to drink tonight?”

  I thought about that. My brain seemed to be moving slower than usual for some reason. Like I had enjoyed a little too much to drink. Not that I’d ever really drank to excess to know what it felt like.

  She shook her head and laughed. “Don’t worry. I know you weren’t drinking tonight.”

  “You do?” I asked. “But how would you know that?”

  It only occurred to me after the words escaped my mouth that it wasn’t the best idea to act all confused that she was letting me off the hook while I was in the middle of being let off the hook. By the time the thought had occurred to me it was too late to take it back.

  “I know because I know,” she said, that enigmatic smile returning to her face. “Plus I don’t smell anything on your breath and I figure you’re probably just having a little bit of trouble getting your regular legs back after being on skates all night.”

  “You know about that feeling? Like the world should be moving faster or something every time you take a step?” I asked.

  “Well of course I do,” she said, then giggled just a little. “I was skating at that place before you were born, after all.”

  “Right,” I said. “Y’know honestly I’m a little worried. I hit my head pretty hard on the hardwood earlier. What if I have a concussion or something?”

  I paused on the verge of telling her everything. How I’d had a real hell of a time tonight in a place that may or may not have been a dream brought on by a concussion. Again I didn’t say anything. That was the sort of thing that might have Aunt Olivia skipping right past the visit to the ER and taking me to the loony bin.

  “How did you fall?” she asked, not sounding at all concerned for someone who’d just discovered the child in their care had suffered a head injury.

  “I sort of fell back on my ass, and then I kept right on going until I landed on my head. I saw stars and everything, but other than that and a mild headache I guess I’m okay.”

  Except for the part where I traveled back in time. That was one hell of a side effect that I doubted anyone else had ever endured when they were suffering from head trauma.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?" Aunt Olivia asked.

  She peered at me like she thought I was hiding something. Which I totally was, but in the grand tradition of teenagers keeping things from their guardians I had no intention of talking.

  “I mean maybe I did get a concussion or something?” I said. “It’s hard to tell, y’know? I just felt kind of weird tonight.”

  Weirder than she could ever imagine, but I wasn’t talking.

  She waved a dismissive hand. “I think you’re going to be fine.”

  “You sound awfully sure about that,” I said.

  “What can I say?” she asked. “I’ve been around you long enough that I know when something’s wrong and I know when you don’t have to worry about whatever it is that’s worrying you.”

  I sighed. She might not be worried, but I couldn’t get over everything that’d happened tonight. There was still a part of me that was wondering if any of it actually had happened.

  “So do you want to talk about it?” she prompted. “I mean you don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to talk about, but I’ve been through a thing or two in my time on this earth.”

&nbs
p; She smiled again. Another one of those weird knowing smiles. Like she knew something but she wasn’t letting me in on that something. I sighed again. I suppose I could present her with a version of the truth.

  Something that didn’t include the whole time travel thing, that is.

  “I might’ve met someone tonight,” I said.

  Her grin split her face and she clapped. Damn. Aunt Olivia was more excited for me than when she got a date. Which wasn’t saying much since, as far as I could tell, she’d hadn’t had a date since I moved in with her.

  “Really?” she asked. “So spill. Tell me all about it!”

  “Well I sort of met her while I was dealing with this real asshole,” I said.

  “So she was like a knight in shining armor coming in and sweeping you off your feet after she saved you from some asshole?" Aunt Olivia asked. “Because I don’t think things can get much better than that, can they?”

  “Something like that,” I muttered.

  I felt a little weird talking with Aunt Olivia about this sort of thing. It’s not that we’d never talked about my love life before. It’s just that we’d never talked about it when I was carefully scrubbing everything I said.

  “That brings back all sorts of great memories,” Aunt Olivia said. “There were so many good times I had at that skating rink when I was younger.”

  “Really?” I asked, trying not to sound too interested. It would be weird if I was suddenly interested in her life when I’d never really asked her about it before, but I wanted to know more about what the skating rink had been like way back when.

  That might give me some tidbit that let me know whether or not everything that happened tonight was real or a concussion dream.

  “Oh yeah,” she said. “Believe it or not that was the big hangout when I was younger. Everyone went there hoping to meet someone.”

  “So did you ever meet anyone there?” I asked, suddenly filled with a burning curiosity about exactly what my aunt had been up to when she was a younger girl around my age.

  “You might say that,” she said with a little wink. “But a lady never kisses and tells.”

  “Which means I probably shouldn’t tell you what happened tonight,” I said, not believing for a moment that I was going to get anything out of her by trying that line of reasoning, but I figured I had to try.

  “Nice try,” she said. “You’re my niece and I put a roof over your head. That means I get to hear all about your love life so I can live vicariously through your youth as repayment.”

  “Whatever,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “So spill,” Aunt Olivia said. “What’s this girl like? Is she a nice Jewish girl?”

  “But we’re not Jewish?” I said, suddenly confused.

  “Yeah, I know,” she said. “Not a good joke, but whatever. Was she a nice girl? I’m assuming she was into girls and this isn’t just a case of you pining after some straight girl because she’s hot? There’s nothing worse than that.”

  “I don’t think that’s the case,” I said. “Why, do you have experience pining after straight girls?”

  “Rules about kissing and telling come to mind young lady,” she said.

  “Right, well we sort of met when she defended me against some asshole on the warpath at the skating rink, and from there we went skating together and then we sort of wound up in…”

  “The F-18 Freedom Fighter cabinet?" Aunt Olivia asked, a distinct twinkle in her eyes.

  “How did you know that?” I asked.

  She waved a dismissive hand. “Come on. Everyone who’s ever gone to that skating rink knows about F-18 Freedom Fighter.”

  “Okay,” I said. “But how did you know we made out in that thing?”

  “So you’re saying you did make out in it?” she asked.

  Crap. I’d just given something away.

  “Maybe we did,” I muttered, blushing and looking away.

  “Don’t look at me like I’m crazy or something,” Aunt Olivia said. “Everyone who’s anyone made out in that arcade machine over the years. In fact there’s a good chance you might’ve been conceived there. It was a good spot for some privacy.”

  My eyes went wide. I was not hearing this. I might’ve made out in a machine where I’d been conceived. Though if the timing worked out there was a good chance I was sitting in the thing before the moment I’d actually come into the world, which was a real mind fuck.

  “Come on Aunt Olivia!” I said. “That is not the kind of thing I need to hear!”

  “What?” she said, giving me her best sweet and innocent shrug. “I thought they taught you about the birds and the bees in school?”

  “They did teach us about the birds and the bees in school, but that’s not the kind of information I needed to know!” I said.

  “Whatever,” Aunt Olivia said, stretching and yawning. “It’s getting late. I’m going to turn in. You should probably do the same. Gonna be a big weekend.”

  “Why would you say that?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “Just a feeling I have. You do have the whole weekend to yourself, after all. You should enjoy the time you have here.”

  There was something about the way she said that that had me curious.

  “Um. Is there something you want to maybe tell me?” I asked. “Like is everything okay?”

  “Oh it’s fine,” she said. “I was just thinking about you going off to college soon, is all. If you get into a school far away and you live in the dorms, well I’m not going to have you around here for much longer.”

  She seemed sad as she said that. It made me sad too, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. It’s not like I could live in Aunt Olivia’s house forever. I had to move on eventually.

  “Goodnight, Aunt Olivia,” I said, smiling in a way that I hoped made her feel better, though from the wistful smile on her face it wasn’t help ing.

  “Goodnight yourself Liv,” she said. “Try not to have too much fun this weekend.”

  15

  Research

  The next day I felt an itch of anticipation. I knew I wanted to go back to the skating rink. There was something about the previous day that had an almost dreamlike quality to it. Like I was having trouble believing it had actually happened now that I was on the other side of what had happened.

  I sighed and pulled up my tablet. I’d been trying to do some schoolwork, but I was in one of those states where I read the same paragraph ten different times without comprehending what was going on in that paragraph.

  Yeah, if ever there was a time to take a break this was it. So I switched over to a browser and did a quick search for the skating rink.

  “Okay,” I muttered. “Let’s see what there is to see about this place.”

  Unfortunately it looked like the people who ran the place weren’t all that tech savvy. Like we’re talking the website looked like it’d been put together before the MySpace days. We’re talking it reached all the way back to the ancient days of Geocities and Angelfire and a bunch of other places I only knew about because my mom had been into that and had shown me some of the stuff she made back before it all got deleted from the Internet for good.

  Though there was one promising bit near the bottom. Right below a tiny pixelated animated GIF that assured me the page was under construction, but would be finished soon.

  Which was a laugh since the website had clearly been “under construction” for a couple of decades now.

  I was about to click on the link, it promised pictures, when my phone rang and I jumped. Then smiled when I saw that it was Felicity calling. I picked it up as I clicked on the page and waited for everything to load.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “Nothing much,” Felicity said. “Was just wondering what we were doing tonight.”

  “Oh I dunno,” I said, even though I had a pretty good idea of exactly what I wanted to do tonight. It’s just that I wasn’t sure I could convince either Candace or Felicity to go back to the skating rink for a s
econd night in a row.

  I figured I’d be going back there on my own. It’d be nice to have my friends with me, but I wasn’t holding my breath that they’d actually agree to it.

  “Y’know I was actually thinking of something that’d be kind of fun,” Felicity said. “But I don’t know what you or Candace would think about it.”

  “Uh-huh,” I said, listening to her but not really paying attention to anything she was saying.

  I was more focused on the pictures that’d finally loaded. Whoever had put the thing together had clearly gone to the trouble of uploading pictures on the regular, for all that this website looked like it’d been built back when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Which meant if I scrolled down I got a nice view of the place over the years.

  “Yeah, I mean we all had so much fun last night that I figured it’d make sense if we maybe…”

  Felicity’s voice turned to background noise, because I’d found something that sent a shiver running through me. Pictures of my mom and Aunt Olivia when they were younger.

  It was weird. I’d known they hung out there when they were younger, but knowing they’d been there when they were younger and seeing photographic proof were two very different things.

  Not to mention the really weird thing. Aunt Olivia looked more like me than my mom did. Like if I didn’t know any better I’d say Aunt Olivia was my real mom, and my mom took me on for some reason.

  I didn’t think there was much of a chance of that being the case. No, Aunt Olivia had been the one to take me on after everything happened with my mom, not the other way around. It’s not like she would’ve given birth to me and then not told me about it in all the time she’d been, essentially, my parent.

  Still, the resemblance was uncanny.

  I kept making what sounded like the right noises as Felicity went on about something that’d happened at the skating rink.

  “…yeah and it’s weird to think I could fall for someone like that when I only knew him for one night and we we just did the whole couples’ skate thing, but…”