90s Queen Bee #Wattys2016

Chapter 14 - Facebook stalking

2015

Ping.

I opened my eyes. I was lying in a bed.

Thwack.

The back of someone's hand hit me in the face and then stayed there, limp. I pushed the hand away and looked over at who it was connected to. Instead of Leonardo DiCaprio (I wish), I was greeted with the sleeping, 34 year old face of Penny.

Ping.

I rolled my head to the other side. There was my phone, lit up as if to welcome me back.

'Are you guys alright? I lost you! Thora said Penny threw up on the dance floor? WTF???? Anisha x'

It was 8.30am and 2015. An iPhone doesn't lie.

Penny groaned. 'Sammy, I feel like I'm gonna be sick.'

'There's nothing left in you to be sick,' I replied.

I'd spent, what? Two days in 1998? But two days hadn't passed here? It had obviously all been a dream, but it had been so vivid. I had felt the weight of my school back pack on my shoulders and the searing pain of Robin's fingernails as they pierced my skin. Just a minute ago the aroma of mum's pumpkin soup filled the air and now the stench of my and Penny's alcohol tinged sweat lingered in my stuffy bedroom.

At least I didn't feel hungover – that was one thing about those pills that did as promised. I walked over to my dresser to study my face in the mirror. The blind pimple on my forehead and bandaid on my cheek were gone, and in their place were the fine lines I wanted Botoxed and a huge mascara smudge.

Yep, I was definitely 34.

'Penny?' I opened a window to shift the air in the room.

'Hmphf.' I wondered if she remembered the events of last night yet.

But first, for my own sanity, I had to find out what she remembered from high school. I needed to know if my actions had had the butterfly effect. Had I changed the past and affected the future in any way?

'You know back in high school? Do you remember me getting into a catfight with Robin?'

She made a low wailing noise. My stomach flip-flopped. Was that a sound of confirmation?

'What do you mean? Ugh, I feel like shit.'

'Did we have huge catfight on the school oval? Hair pulling, eye gouging, the whole works?'

'What are you talking about? Of course not!' She frowned at me. 'Did you take anything last night?'

'No,' I lied sheepishly. 'I just had a weird dream last night that I had a catfight with Robin in high school. It seemed so real.'

So I hadn't done anything to change the course of history. It really was either a dream or some sort of freaky arse hallucination. I'd heard some stories from Jack and Jill in my time, including one that involved Jack having the most intense conversation of his life with what turned out to be a potplant and another that involved Jill convincing herself that she was auditioning for Star Wars smack in the middle of a warehouse party in Berlin.

One thing was for sure, I was going to track down that Thora woman to find out exactly what she'd given me.

'Well, you didn't have a catfight with Robin in high school.' Penny sat up slowly. 'But I have a question for you. What happened last night?'

'Do you remember anything?' Great, I was going to have to break the news that she had puked her guts up in front of a roomful of strangers and a trio of guys who she wished were strangers.