HILL VALLEY ¹, back to the future

xxii. a fool in love

Amanda romanticized the idea in her head, trying to keep the image of her mother as long as she could before going back. "Sure. You won't get rid of me so easily, promise," She told her to have her nod intently, Fletcher soon coming up behind her, "Now get him washed up. He's gonna end up staining your dress that way." The two of them laughed at this and agreed, continuing to stand beside each other when she left.

"So we'll see you again, kid?"

"It's funny. When I imagined my parents together as kids, I didn't expect this. It was far from the idea I had or even could've had. My dad seemed to hide away any memory of her for his own sake, having me always be a little upset I never got to really understand. Though meeting her, none of that personality could've been explained with simple photographs. It's gonna be hard to go back to before I knew much of anything God knowledge can be damned crippling," Amanda reflected before turning back to them

She nodded with a woeful grin. "Definitely." Knowing the impact that would be made from a simple phrase towards something that could hint at their future, she made her last attempt in changing it for the better. "Julia?" The auburn haired girl tilted her head confused as she couldn't help to grow emotional over having gotten this close to her in the first place. "If something's good, you don't have to be afraid of it. Just. . . live your life the way you want to, that's all."

Julia smiled and nodded in agreement. "I'll take your word for it, Amanda."

Heading back inside to hear Marty strumming a mess of guitar chords that would never have come out of him before caused for her to now look around the crowd in worry. Turning to see a boy laughing obnoxiously with Lorraine suddenly, George soon came into view to push him aside and kiss her.

Amanda looked back up to see her friend standing on his feet and sighed in relief. "That was too close," She muttered under her breath.

From his spot on the stage he scanned the crowd to spy the speck of blonde in her blue dress just standing outside of the door. Marty beamed at the sight of as he stood up to the microphone whilst the students cheered on the dance floor. "Alright- Alright, this is, uh, this is an oldie, but uh-" Marty stumbled for a second on his choice of words as she couldn't help to laugh at his attempt here. "Well, it's an oldie where I come from." He turned back to band momentarily to instruct them how to play the instrumentals that backed up the tune before strumming out the iconic introduction to Johnny B. Goode as Amanda couldn't help to become entranced by the sight of the now rowdy group.

Seeing him enjoy himself put a smile on her face, even if Marty did go a bit overboard with the guitar playing by the end to have everyone stare at him confused.

Once he was speaking to the mic again, Amanda rushed to the back to catch up with him, seeing another figure coming down from the staircase instead. He turned back to her, immediately flustered as she slowly made her way over to him. Looking like a dollar store Blues Brother by the outfit he had on, she stopped in her tracks upon closer inspection. "Marty? Is that you? When did you have time to change?"

He laughed under his breath and raised a book in his hands jokingly. "Do you remember that party? Back on your first day at school? They made us play some stupid game of seven minutes in Heaven." She nodded, still confused by the odd question. "That's when I knew."

By the statement made she realized easily this wasn't her Marty at all, and it in fact wasn't. It was one that instead already lived through all of this and was brought her due to unfortunate circumstances Amanda would soon come to find out about."You're from the future, aren't you?"

He gaped his mouth to her confused. "I didn't even hint at anything?"

"You're emotional with a tendency to express your feelings at all the wrong moments." Cupping his cheek, she smiled to him sympathetically. "But it's good to know it wasn't all just you being sentimental."

Stepping back from him, Amanda cleared her throat to him trying to leave out the door. "Now if you'll excuse me." He tipped his hat to her jokingly as she laughed at the look of him before heading inside to be stopped by Marty coming down the stairs. "Hey, we're in 1955. No one's ready to pull some AC/DC shtick."

Being stopped by him hugging her tightly, she took the embrace to hug him back. He stepped away to leave little space between them tenderly. "It's never been just me being sentimental you know? It's always been you."

Amanda blushed over the innocent comment. "Marty?" Looking over to see Lorraine and George now making their way over to them, Amanda separated from him.

He sighed under his breath at the timing, as she took his hand with a smile to lead him up to them. "Did I interrupt?"

"Not at all Lorraine," She explained to her.

Lorraine nodded to this, turning over to Marty rather surprised. "Well that was very. . . interesting music." Marty agreed as she looked down shyly for a moment. "Uh, I hope you don't mind, but George asked if he could take me home."

"Great, Good! Good, Lorraine," Marty told her as she beamed over his response, "I had a feeling about you two."

"I have a feeling too," She said as George came over to us with a shy grin as well.

"Listen I gotta go but, uh, I wanted to tell you that its been- educational."

The two of them frowned to the comment. "Well will we ever see you again?"

Amanda looked up to Marty for a moment to see him smile over this. "I guarantee it."

"Well Marty, I want to thank you for all your good advice. I'll never forget it," George told him, shaking his hand.

Amanda stepped down for a moment, beginning to head out with him before her friend decided to stop in the midst of this to give his parents a word of warning of his own. "Oh. One other thing- If you guys ever have kids, and one of them when he's eight years old, accidentally sets fire to the living room rug, go easy on him."

He took her around his arm, the two of them rushing back to the car. Driving hurriedly in an attempt to be back on time, Amanda laughed under her breath over what he said. "How do you accidentally set fire to the living room rug?"

"By accident obviously, I was eight." He explained as she grabbed the spare clothes from the back.

Finding her t-shirt to throw over the dress, he looked over her briefly as she shoved him playfully. "Eyes on the road, we're gonna be late."