Trust me I know what happens next

“Way?” she knew it made her seem even more like a stalker but she had to ask.

“Yeah…” he took a step backwards which was understandable. “How did you know that?”

“Uh… I know a guy that knows you.” it was a stupid and unoriginal lie but it had to do for now. “Do you mind telling me the exact date?”

“July the seventh 1993.” the words echoed in her mind. It took her a while to understand them. She had gone back in time. It still sounded hard to believe. The question that followed was ‘What now?’.

“Hey can I hang out with you for a while?” she mentally kicked herself for being so lame. She just really wanted to stay there and ask him so many questions and tell him about the future. She knew that was the one thing she absolutely shouldn’t do but still, the temptation was incredibly hard to resist.

“Sure.” he smiled politely. It was obvious he felt weird too. “So, Sarah, what are you doing here alone at night? We’re in Jersey after all.”

“Jersey?!” she’d never been to Jersey and the only information she had about it was enough; it was dangerous. “Why are you here?” she tried to mask her confusion but you could still see it in her eyes.

“I went for a walk.”

Their conversation just took off from there. Sarah found it hard to act normal since he only spoke about things from the nineties she could hardly remember. She couldn’t even talk about her favorite bands and movies simply because they didn’t exist yet. Every time she opened her mouth she had to think if anything she says would affect the future. She separated the topics in her mind in a ‘good’ and a ‘bad’ category. Friends, family, favorite colors, hobbies and all that were safe but almost anything else didn’t make the cut. But everything she did had already be done because this had happened so she calmed herself that she hadn’t ruined everything.

After she was done thinking about that another problem was discovered. She had almost forgotten she had to get home. She panicked. What if she couldn’t? Where would she stay? Suddenly she really wanted to part with Gerard and try to get home. She had always thought that if she ever met him she wouldn’t want to leave him and now here she was trying to get rid of him.

“Sarah?” his voice penetrated her gloomy thoughts and got her down back to Earth.

“Huh? Oh, yeah…”

“The answer to ‘What’s your favorite Smashing Pumpkins song’ is ‘yeah’?” he was looking weirdly at her and she didn’t blame him.

“Today or maybe Rocket? No, wait, Zero!” he wasn’t exactly responding to her smile.

“I don’t think those are their songs.” there it was again – the what-the-fuck look. “I own all their albums and I haven’t heard any of those. But their new album is coming out this month! I can’t wait!”

She decided that was it. She couldn’t do any more mistakes, it was time for her to leave.
“Gerard, it’s been really awesome talking to you but I gotta go now, it’s getting late.” she shot him an apologetic look and got up.

“I’ll walk you home.” she cursed him for being nice but nodded anyway. It was a pretty awkward walk; none of them had anything to say. Sarah just led him a few blocks down the street and pretended she lived in some random house.

“OK, this is my place. Thanks for walking me.” she gave him a hug that took him by surprise but he hugged back anyway.

“You’re welcome. But seriously, don’t go out so late at night when you’re alone. About four dead bodies have been found in that park alone.”

‘Oh, way to go, Gerard! That’s what every girl wants to hear when you’re parting.’ she thought to herself. In her opinion he really was the weird teenager he claimed to be. It was like he hadn’t seen more than ten people in his entire life and had no idea how to talk to them. “Goodnight!”

“Night.” he replied and turned around. She wished he walked faster while she silently went around the house to hide. After waiting for a bit she started going back to the park. Dead bodies or not, she had to get home fast.

She usually walked fast but now she was almost running. At one point she caught up with Gerard and had to slow down to keep a distance of thirty feet just so he didn’t hear her. Thankfully he didn’t go into the park this time and continued in a different direction.
Sarah had made an effort to remember the exact spot she had arrived at. The dark was making her nervous. She wanted to get this over with. Standing in front of the bushes she had first been she took a deep breath and jumped.

Nothing happened.

It was the most disappointing moment in her life after her parents her gotten her a fish for a pet instead of a kitten. She didn’t know what she really expected. To sink into a hole and fall through a tunnel with clocks levitating around? Or maybe to get that cutting feeling and just appear back home in Green Point? Whatever it was that she wanted it didn’t happen. She was just standing there in the bushes like a complete idiot. She took steps back and forth and even touched the ground to make sure it was there. She looked around. It was the very same place.

Her emotions were a mix of fear, anger, confusion, despair and almost every other negative feeling that existed. The situation was the worst possible thing ever. It wasn’t really even possible. No one had instructed her what to do when she gets lost in time. She just tried to find the portal or whatever it was that had gotten her here. After fifteen minutes she gave up.
She sat on the bench and thought about it all. She was alone, stranded in year 1993. She didn’t know anybody, most of her friends weren’t born yet or were mere infants. She couldn’t ask anyone for help. Not even Gerard, that would seem very strange, they were perfect strangers. She was persistently avoiding the thought that kept coming up.
She had to sleep outside. She was homeless.

The loudest sigh escaped her lips. She lied down on the bench and tried to make herself comfortable. Then she remembered Gerard’s warning about being alone at night in Jersey. The bench suddenly became even more uncomfortable, like everyone could see it. She quickly got up and hid in the bushes. It wasn’t the brightest idea ever but she was too scared to go look for another place to sleep at. She wondered how she hadn’t felt paranoid before when she was walking back to the park. Now it seemed absurd to feel safe in this city.

She also discovered she was tired. Too tired to even think and soon enough she was sleeping. She dreamed of her home.