Not This Time

Nina: November 10, 1984

     The party buzzed around me under the sound of the music. Tour had ended five days ago and Bon Jovi's manager was throwing a party for the band in celebration of 'a great tour,' even though the band was only a supporting act for bigger bands most of the time. I was heading home to the future at the end of the month, so I figured there was no harm in showing up at the party before I left. There were a ton of people, and I knew absolutely none of them. Even though all of the techs involved in the tour and the making of the album had been invited to show up, I was the only one that actually had. Figured.
     I sat against a wall, holding a mostly empty bottle of gin I'd brought with me. I smiled at the alcohol, amused that I hadn't actually lived through my twenty-first birthday back home, but I'd turned twenty-one at the beginning of this year. According to my doctored birth certificate, I had, anyway. I shook my head. Time travel was a mess. I didn't bother with technicalities. It had never stopped me in the past; I'd developed a taste for gin back in high school.
     My smile faded into a frown. Most of the bottle was gone. Of course, it was also true that it had been more than three quarters empty when I'd gotten to the party. I'd been drinking from the bottle since and was already buzzed when he sat down beside me. I looked over at him and hiccupped, not quite sure what he was doing next to me. Still, he grinned at me like we were best friends.
     "Can I help you?" I asked, looking away and taking another swig of alcohol. I'd successfully avoided talking to him outside of work related matters for almost the whole tour, but that was then. Now that tour was over, I was going to be gone in a couple weeks. I figured there was no harm in talking to him now. He leaned away from me a little. I could tell he was drunk too, but he was probably a bit more so than I was.
     "Can I tell you a secret?" Jon chuckled, leaning towards me like he couldn't sit up straight. I leaned away from him, staring at him incredulously.
     "You sure you wanna do that?" I hiccupped. He leaned back away from me and I straightened, looking around for around for Jon's girlfriend. I'd heard that Dorothea had shown up with Jon, but the other girl had been social whereas I'd been sitting on this wall for most of the party.
     "I met Diane Lane," he bragged. I smirked.
     "Is that your secret?" I laughed, "Man, you need to work on some better secrets." I held out my bottle of gin to him, offering without really offering. Diane Lane was an Academy nominated film actress known for her partying and wild behavior. I should have known she would turn up at a party in New York. I had nothing really against the woman's talent, I just hadn't really enjoyed many of the movies Diane was in. Though, to be fair, some of them she hadn't even been in yet.
     Jon shook his head as he took the bottle. "No, the secret is, I really want her." He brought the bottle to his lips and took a drink. I raised an eyebrow at his statement, and then smirked at his reaction to the gin. Maybe he hadn't been expecting me to drink hard liquor because his face was so surprised, and maybe a little disgusted. He examined the label on the bottle, nodding a little in what appeared to be bewildered appreciation.
     "Some secret," I scoffed, "Every man wants her." I rolled her eyes and took the bottle of gin back from Jon with a frown. "But you," I challenged, "You have no reason to." I looked at him pointedly, "You've got a good thing with that girlfriend of yours." I paused and looked away, bringing the bottle up to take a drink. I shrugged just before the bottle touched my lips and added, "Or so I've been told." I downed some more of the alcohol, shook my head, and looked at him again. "Seriously, though, high school sweethearts? What could be more perfect than that? You two are so cute it makes me want to puke."
     Jon's expression of disgust from the gin vanished at the mention of his girlfriend. He chuckled again and shook his head, a smile still on his face as he thought about Dorothea. Jon scanned the room for his girlfriend before letting out a sigh. He shook his head and bit his lip. I knew what was coming. I could tell what he was thinking: Tour is long and lonely and Dotty can't fly wherever, whenever. I rolled my eyes again and stood before he could say it. Jon stood too and stumbled a little bit. I looked over at him, shaking my head.
     "Diane Lane parties too hard, even for you, Rockstar" I advised him, "That relationship would end poorly. Trust me. Stay with your high school sweetheart." I took another drink from my almost empty bottle of gin and smiled sweetly at him.
     Jon smiled as he stepped closer to me. "I realized the other day that you and Dotty are amazingly alike," he commented, wrapping an arm around my waist.
     As much as I might have loved the idea of his arms around me in any other instance, my smile faded a little. It sounded to me like he wanted to pretend I was Dorothea for a moment, but Jon only tilted his head curiously.
     His words slurred a little when he added, "When did you start learning Karate? Dotty's doing Karate too."
     I let out an uncomfortable laugh, partially in relief, and twisted out of his arms. I stepped out of his reach and wagged a finger at him disapprovingly. Jon didn't reach for me a second time; he just stood there watching me. I knew he'd seen me kick that guy in London a few months ago. Jon knew better than to try something a second time, even if he was drunk.
     "Here's a tip," I told him across the small space I'd created between us, "Try that again when you're not in a relationship. You might actually get somewhere." I winked with an awkward smile and turned to go.
     "Are you leaving?"
     "Yeah, I gotta book," I called over my shoulder to him, "See ya 'round, Rockstar."
     I escaped into the crowd before Jon could catch me and say another word. He seemed to have a lot of questions about me, and that bothered me because I didn't know why. I was sure I'd covered all my bases. Surely, Jon Bon Jovi, goal-oriented, no-nonsense Jon, didn't suspect something crazy like time travel at play? I shook my head again. No way.
     I made my way over to the coat check, where someone was supposed to be keeping everyone's coats, but there was nobody there. I looked around. Where the hell was the guy who'd taken my coat when I got here? I could see over the counter that the walls of the small room were lined with racks of coats. I frowned and shook my head when I realized that I was going to have to find my coat in that mess by myself. I downed the tiny bit of gin that remained in my bottle and left the bottle on the counter.
     There was another woman in the room already when I opened the door. She appeared to be looking for her coat as well. We more or less ignored each other's presence as I started pawing through the coats, looking for mine.
     "This is ridiculous," the other woman grumbled after a few moment of silence. I glanced across the small room at her, but she was turned away from me, so I could only see her brown hair falling over the strapless top she had on.
     "Wasn't there supposed to be someone to do this?" I snickered back. She laughed, but neither of us stopped looking. My eyes followed a denim jacket as it fell off the hanger in front of me. With a sigh, I reached down and picked up the jacket. As I absently reached for the hanger, I scanned the rest of the coats in the room, frowning that I hadn't gotten to them yet.
     Then I saw my coat. It was on a hanger that was in the other woman's hand. She seemed to be admiring it, or maybe that part was my imagination.
     "Uh, excuse me," I said awkwardly. The woman turned around to look at me and her face brightened. A smile appeared on her face at almost the exact moment mine vanished in surprise. It was Dorothea. I wanted to say something, but my words were getting all tangled up in my throat as Jon's words repeated in my mind.
..you and Dotty are amazingly alike....amazingly alike..
     I shook my head and tried to smile. It probably looked pretty awkward.
     "You've got my jacket," Dorothea chuckled, pointing to the denim in my hand. I looked down at the jacket absently, almost having forgotten I was holding it. Right.
     "Oh!" I snickered, "That's my coat." I nodded to the long black coat that Dorothea was still holding. Dorothea looked back at the coat in her hand and held it out to me. I offered the jean jacket to her in return, trying not to dwell on Jon's words.
     "Perfect!" Dorothea chirped as we exchanged coats. She smiled at me as she shrugged on her jacket and pulled her hair out from underneath it. "You've got great taste, by the way, that's a really cute coat," she complimented.
     I smiled and nodded. "Thanks," I muttered awkwardly. I motioned to her. "You're a lot braver than I am, wearing a strapless in this weather."
     She laughed and shook her head. "It was a mistake, trust me!" We both laughed a little and I pushed my arms through the sleeves of my coat.
     I couldn't see what Jon was saying about her and I being alike. I mean, I could totally see us being friends, but alike? Not necessarily.
     "Anyway, thanks," I told Dorothea as I buttoned my coat, "Goodnight."
     "Goodnight," Dorothea echoed as I turned to walk away. When I got out of the little coat room, I glanced back over the counter at the other woman. Dorothea tucked her hair behind her ear as she checked her pockets. I could see why Jon had fallen for her at first sight; she was gorgeous.
..amazingly alike..
     I paused and smiled for a moment. The alcohol in my system was convincing me that I actually liked that insinuation. Then I realized that I was drunk and continued toward the door, shaking my head. Those words meant nothing. He was drunk. I took a deep breath and pushed my encounters with both Jon and his girlfriend from my mind.
     I stopped by the door and searched my coat pockets to make sure no one had taken anything out of them. Nothing had been taken, but something had been put in. I pulled the small square package out of my coat pocket and looked at it. With a roll of my eyes, I tossed the contraceptive over my shoulder and walked out.
     Out in the snowy November night, my jeans didn't do much to keep the cold off my legs. It was snowing lightly as I stepped onto the sidewalk. I loved when it snowed. Growing up where I had, snow was a myth, so when I'd first gotten to New York and experienced my first real snow, it was magic. I danced around in the snowflakes as I made my way across the parking lot to my little blue Beetle.
     I always parked my car on the far end of the lot. I knew I wouldn't lose my car that way. My little bug was covered in a thin layer of snow when I got out to it. I smiled as I unlocked the car door. Some of the snow fell off the top of my car when I closed the door. I yelped a little, but then giggled at my own reaction. Maybe I'd had too much to drink. I didn't start the car right away; I just sat there and admired the snow falling.
     I would be home at the end of the month. It had been pretty much a year since the last time I'd gone home. I hadn't noticed anything out of place, but that didn't mean it wasn't there. I was going to have to go through the weird autumn to winter transition phase all over again. That was gonna be bunk. I wasn't looking forward to it.
     Finally, I took a deep breath and started the car. I probably shouldn't have been driving after finishing that bottle of gin, even if it had been mostly empty when I'd started, but nevertheless, I had to get home. It was pretty much a straight shot, right? I smiled a silly smile to myself and shrugged it off as I buckled my seat belt.
     I pulled out of the parking lot and turned toward the highway. I was too drunk to consider the fact that I'd just given Jon Bon Jovi advice not to do what I knew he was supposed to do. It was a known fact of his history that he dated Diane Lane for a while after he and his girlfriend broke up. Not that I realized that I'd just advised him not to do that. Or maybe I did and I was too drunk to realize that it was bad. Who knows.
     My mind wandered from one thing to the next as I drove home in the snow, finally settling on Matt's promise to take me to the future so that I could use a RevitaLight. I took my hands off the steering wheel for a brief moment to clap my hands excitedly. The car behind me honked as my Beetle started to drift towards the edge of the highway. I laughed and took hold of the wheel once more. As I straightened out in the lane, I waved over my shoulder at the person behind me so that they knew I was okay.
     I hiccuped and then giggled at my silliness. "Back in time," I sang to myself. Not knowing all the words, I continued humming the melody of the song as I drove down the freeway. I didn't notice how much my car was actually lilting back and forth within the lane; I was too preoccupied with the excitement of going to the future before home.
     "When this baby hits 88 miles per hour," I mumbled, glancing down at my speedometer, "You're gonna see some serious shit." With another grin, I pretended to set dates in Doc Brown's DeLorean Time Machine as I steadily sped up to 88mph.