𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 , 𝟖𝟎𝐬

33 = a simulation

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th 1987

i layed in my bed with my comforter up to my chin as i listened to the radio playing pink floyd for what seemed to be the hundredth time. there was a slight knock on my bedroom door, "yeah?" i unenthusiastically called out.

the door opened revealing maggie, "you have a visitor." jason appeared behind her.

i sat up a bit and turned the radio off and jason came in closing the door behind him.

"hi stranger." he spoke softly.

"hi." i gave him a small smile. he took a seat on the edge of my bed and looked at me with sad eyes.

"how're you holding up?"

"okay, i guess."  i breathed out and shrugged, "bored, anxious, sober."

"i wanna ask you something, brandy."

"hit me with it."

he took in a deep breath, "why does it seem like you don't give a fuck about anything anymore?"

i furrowed my eyebrows at him, "like how?"

"it just seems like every day you've progressively given less of a fuck about everything for the past couple weeks. i know you were using drugs to cope with what happened, but it seems deeper than that. you just seem ... different than the girl you were when i first met you."

my heart rate began to pick up as i realized this is the moment i've been waiting for. "if i told you, you wouldn't believe me." i looked him in the eyes.

"hit me with it." he copied my previous words.

i let out a scoff of a laugh, "before i say anything, you need to believe me when i say i've been sober for days. because what im about to tell you is going to sound like im incredibly high."

"okay." he bit the side of his cheek.

i searched for the right words to start off my explanation, but it all just sounded too crazy.

"no matter how i try to start it it just sounds impossible!"

"just talk. i'll listen and try to understand."

i let out a sigh and then began, "okay, i think i somehow time travelled into an alternate universe of some sort."

"what?" he laughed.

"i don't know if im dead or if i'm in a coma or something and this is just a weird dream but, 1987 has already happened. my name isn't brandy alexander, it's kennedy white. and brandy isn't a stage name or whatever, either. i was born in 2001 and it was 2018 when i got into a car crash with naomi, or who you know as kayla. a car slammed into ours in an intersection. i woke up on the red carpet at the lost boys premiere, where you all said i apparently passed out. i don't know, maybe that's how i got here?" the words spewed out of my mouth. they've been waiting to come out since i got here.

he let out a laugh again, "i'm sorry, it's just ... how would you time travel?"

"i don't know! i don't have any recollection of any thing before the premiere. thats why i always seem so confused and lost and ask you so many questions. like when we went in and i asked what year it was, and didn't know who joel was."

jason's eyes widened as he remembered those times, "i just thought you hit your head really hard or something."

i shook my head, "i was just thrown into this life of an actress who didn't even exist from the time that i'm from! there wasn't an actress named brandy who had a role in the lost boys, and in license to drive it's heather graham who plays mercedes."

"are you serious?"

i ignored his question and continued to ramble, "which is actually kinda spooky because she tried out for the role, but i ended up getting it. i've basically been messing with the history of hollywood in 1987-"

"i think i'm gonna pass out." his words made me clock back into reality.

"are you okay?" i began to frantically fan him but he grabbed my hand so i would stop.

"you're telling me my girlfriend is an accidental time traveler from 30 some years in the future?"

"awe, you called me your girlfriend." i stupidly grinned at him.

he abruptly stood up from my bed, "yes you're my girlfriend! and you're a time traveler?" his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head, "you said this year already happened so what the fuck am i? a simulation of your brain? is this even real? are you going to go back home?"

i sat up straighter, "wow you're taking this a lot harder than i thought you would. i thought you wouldn't believe me or something."

"of course i believe you, you've always seemed a little weird..." my jaw dropped, taking offense to his choice of words but he quickly fixed it, "different, i mean. using all that weird slang and talking about patrick dempsey like you know him!"

"he's in a tv show in the 2000s. greys anatomy." i shrugged.

"wait." jason stopped pacing back and forth and turned to look at me, "so you and kayla- naomi, whatever, coming here was an accident?"

i nodded my head. "so how do you get back?"

i tried to hold in a laugh but failed and he looked at me like i was a maniac. "that's the best part! we don't know how! we have a few hunches, one being get into another car accident and the other is that we're just stuck here forever."

"a car accident? why, because that's how you supposedly got here in the first place?"

"yup." i popped the p, "jake, you remember jake from my birthday party?"

he nodded.

"he came up with that idea. we don't know if it'll work though, but it's a good idea."

"getting into a car accident is a good idea?" his voice raised a bit.

"to try and get back home, yeah!"

jason dropped to the floor and sat with his back against my dresser. i got off of my bed and sat next to him.

"you said your name's kennedy?"

i nodded.

"why the different names?"

"no idea. trust me, it was terrifying waking up on the red carpet to all of you calling me brandy. and then i saw my picture on the seat in the theater that said brandy alexander," i shrugged, "i kind of just went along with it so i didn't sound crazy."

jason nodded, zoning out while looking at my floor. i think he was trying to process everything i just told him.

"so do i call you kennedy?"

"whatever you'd like." i smiled at him.