➪ 𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟: 𝕓𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕓𝕪 𝕡𝕚𝕟𝕜 𝕗𝕝𝕠𝕪𝕕
LOOKING THROUGH the attic in the midst of cleaning, marking two days left before the dreaded return of school and a lack of Doc this past week to keep her busy with errands, Amanda continued to search for some novels she'd left behind during their move a year ago.
'Course two days of summer left and taking up a part-time job, didn't seem to be the perfect time to catch up reading Tolkien.
Finding a few boxes left behind, she smiled happily over finally finding them and stepped down to begin to open them. "Hang on?" Opening one of the boxes, Amanda didn't find any books and instead found an intricately beaded white dress; clearly being kept away from anyone coming up here. "Mom's wedding dress-" Holding this out in surprise, expecting it to be gone along with the rest of her, Amanda scoured through the box for anything else that might've been hiding inside. Finding more photos of her, she sighed over her wondering if times were ever once so simple.
Growing up without barely any recollection of the woman herself or what she looked like, seeing the photos would've been the equivalent to that of a stranger. Her name was Julia Montague, or that was all her father really told Amanda about her mother. The last time he'd even seen her was when she was barely two, which prompted the move out of Hill Valley in the first place.
This disconnect with her family history having been centered into town always left her out of place growing up, like there was more to their history and, essentially, her history she could've benefited from hearing if her father at least told her something. Fletcher assumed it was out of protecting his daughter from getting her seeking these answers, but it only left her discontent and alone knowing that there was a woman out there who didn't care enough to stick around and watch her grow up.
Setting the photos beside her in the dusty attic, Amanda then lifted up the old book in her hands and brushed away the dust to reveal the Hill Valley High logo on the cover with the Class of 1958. "Dad's high school yearbook!" Turning the pages to the graduating senior class in search of a photo of her Dad from the sea of graduates caused her to frown slightly and lose some of her spirits. The image of the auburn haired woman faced her instead along with the graduating class, turning a few pages before that to finally find her father and smiling over his lack of childish smile in the photograph.
"Hey, Amy?" Her father's footsteps suddenly became audible on the ladder coming up to where she was, causing for her to put the fragments of memory lane back into the box where she had found them before he could see. Taking the book from the side of her boxes, her dad poked out his head to her and laughed lightly. "Found the book then?"
Amanda nodded and went back down with him. "Well, I'm glad. Just came to make sure you're still hungry so I can order us that pizza."
"Yea, pizza sounds great." He grinned and made his way over to the house phone without knowing what his daughter had stumbled upon. Turning back, Amanda lifted the ladder back up and away from the main hallway, looking up briefly at the memories tucked away and hidden just above her head.
She was aware there was more to their story. Amanda just wished she wasn't so curious as to finding out what exactly it was.
-ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ-
THE ALARM CLOCK RADIO rang suddenly and I groaned myself awake, hearing the faint sound of Chuck Berry escaping through the station. "Amanda!" Her dad yelled, the music making his footsteps to her room barely audible.
Seeing him now outside the door he chuckled at the sight of her and opened up her curtains to have Amanda cringe at the light. "C'mon now kid, don't wanna be late for your last morning shift right?"
"Would it be so terrible to be late?" He raised a brow to her, knowing how punctual she liked to be, and Amanda groaned to nod quietly to leave her dad grinning again before leaving the room. Getting her uniform for the cineplex and grabbing her skateboard, she rushed down the stairs to get her breakfast on the run before waving a goodbye and heading out on her way.
The movie theatre job made use of the extra time she now had what with Marty and Jennifer both hanging out together to leave her out of the hang outs she usually had with them separately. However she made friends easily with Bobby who also had a job at the mall at the Tape World, which made her happy to have someone to keep her company instead of trying to gear up another loyal friend group.
"Two tickets for Gremlins then. Enjoy your movie," Amanda told the two boys heading inside, sitting back in her glass box she was constrained to be in for the next 6 hours.
The cineplex inside the Twin Pines Mall consisted of her simply sitting in a seat, charging money, and passing out a few tickets to lonesome teens. It was a boring job, but at least it paid for trips and concerts she'd save up for when school was out. The time continued to tick away as she struggled to maintain staying awake any longer than she had to before a familiar face came up to the booth suddenly to her surprise.
His blue eyes shined just briefly, taking her back to that moment under the campfire from the gaze. "Hey there doe eyes," Marty said with a chuckle under his breath as she rolled her eyes, not helping herself to smile over the nickname, "Two tickets for Fright Night, please." Amanda nodded, getting the tickets for him discretely of no charge, and handed them to him under the window.
Her hair was tucked back into a ponytail which he no doubt figured she was dreading have to do. To say he missed seeing her as often was an understatement considering he'd gotten so used to seeing her the majority of his day. "So, how have you—"
"Amanda!" Marty rolled his eyes at hearing Jennifer to his friend's surprise as Amanda saw her coming up to the booth as well, shooting an annoyed glance to Marty before beaming over to her. Having just gotten into a fight on the way up here, he was still on edge about it and, judging by the way she was acting with him, so was she. "It's so good to see you!"
"She works here you know."
"Yea I know that Marty, I'm just trying to be nice." Amanda cleated her throat awkwardly, sensing the brief hostility before Jen's mood shifted and she was beaming over to her once again. "Hopefully I'll see you more once school starts again. Take care."
Amanda nodded, waving her off and looked to Marty concerned. "What's going on? You guys doing okay?"
He sighed under his breath, rubbing his temples over reliving it by the question she asked. "We've been fighting a lot recently, it's nothing." Smiling suddenly to her, an attempt to lighten the situation again for his sake, he gestured over to Amanda. "Got any plans for tonight? I could use one of our midnight adventures before having to suffer at the hands of Strickland tomorrow."
She laughed at the comment despite having to reject it. "Sorry blue, but Bobby and I already made plans for our last hoorah at this concert we're heading out to tonight." He was taken aback by this suddenly and Amanda knit her brows together over him being so surprised by it. "You and I haven't hung out as often as we used to? Bobby grabbed the tickets awhile back and it's Pink Floyd so why the wouldn't I go along?"
Marty nodded with a hint of disappointment still peering through whatever cool he was still trying to come off as having. Out of his own curiosity and wanting to know if those were her priorities these days, he made a bold choice to ask her more about this. "You guys dating?"
"No? We're just good friends? It is possible for me to hang out with a guy without me dating them?" Amanda rolled my eyes and let out a deep breath of annoyance from the hypocrisy of him assuming this. "You and I do it after all- Right?"
He only gave her a smile and peered ahead to the door leading into the theatre. "Jennifer's probably waiting for me inside; shouldn't keep her waiting so long. I'll talk to you later Amy." Amanda frowned slightly and waved him away, watching Marty slip through her fingers yet again. Continuing to sit through the confined box through her shift, her mind continued to linger onto her dear old baby blue; wondering if everything really was okay.
-ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ-
THROUGH THE DRIVE to the next town over for the concert, Amanda proceeded to vent her misadventures of the day to Bobby as he drove them along. Once she finished, he only rolled his eyes over everything he thought she was mindlessly worrying over. "Kid, Marty is a big boy. If something is going on, he can be an adult and come to you to talk about it."
"And the whole friend thing? C'mon."
He looked to her seriously, maintaining a steady hand on the steering wheel as they continued on the highway. "If he wants to admit to something he so obviously seems to be avoiding for God knows what reason, he can be an adult, like I've been saying, and admit them." Amana looked out the window with a frown, turning up the volume for the music to take up the silent space. "Besides, you dragging yourself on and on with this whole thing isn't something you should be doing to begin with. You deserve better than that."
Amanda laughed under her breath and turned out of interest to him being sentimental. "Do I then?"
He laughed along with her and shoved her aside playfully over the insinuation as she leaned back into her seat. "Hey, speaking of the poor bastard, you know that tape we just finished for the record company?" She nodded. "Well, your 'love boat' of a friend has yet to actually mail it out."
Amanda sat up over this in shock. "What! He's an idiot, I know, but this an extra amount of stupid; even for him."
"McFly's all whigged out, I'm telling you! He's got the band signed up for this battle of the bands thing at school in two weeks and if that isn't the confidence boost he needs to send out the damned thing, then I'm gonna take it and do it myself."
Seeing Bobby's obvious annoyance over the whole situation, Amanda tried to take it as seriously as he was. "I can talk to him too? He listens to me."
Bobby raised a brow to her with a smug grin. "Oh trust me babe, I know you can." Amanda scoffed over what he meant, looking out the window again to see the packed arena. Numerous amounts of teenagers seemed to pack themselves through the entrances and even more cars filing inside the parking lot of the stadium in celebration of the blessed Floyd album that is The Wall.
"Well, not the album in particular, but if I don't hear a single track off of it, I'm having a fit," Amanda thought to herself.
"You even tell him we were hanging out tonight?"
" 'Course I did." She turned back over to Bobby now struggling to fit his van into the little spaces of entry the cars were making for parking. "He thinks we're dating by the way."
He laughed over the thought and shook his head. "He thinks any guy you're with is suddenly someone you're dating, I swear. The times I've caught the poor guy flaring up over a guy just even talking to you at a show—" Shutting his eyes over the amount of laughter he had difficulty suppressing from thinking back to the several events at their shows, Amanda found it infectious and was just as amused beside him. "It's like someone called him Chicken. It's a hell of a sight."
He shrugged for a moment once finding a safe parking space for his van. The idea of dating her himself had crossed his mind several times, but he'd been too shy to open up about it. And, for that matter, Amanda always seemed to have her eyes set on someone else. Whether she cared to admit it or not. "Bet if you said we were dating, he'd profess his love then and there."
"Knowing the bastard, he would." Making his way over to open her van door, he slung a protective arm around Amanda while she held onto the back of his leather jacket. "Now let's be another brick in the wall, eh love?"
"God I should've brought Lee along instead," He joked as she tugged on his hand for them to rush into the sea of concert goers for the rest of the night.
-ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ-
SETTING ASIDE the concert merch by her backpack for the next day, Amanda plopped face-first into her bed to shut off the light quickly and get some much-needed rest after a night of revolutionary fist bumps and singing. She was soon interrupted by the phone in her bedroom ringing loudly and she looked to it wide-eyed, picking it up quickly before it could wake her father up. "Who's-"
"Amanda, it's me."
"Marty you know you're not supposed to call this late? My Dad has rules," She reminded him as she looked out to her bedroom door in worry over her father stepping in to find her on the call.
"Yea, well, not like you were going to come over after the concert so this was my best bet." Amanda rolled her eyes and took the cord along with her to turn on the bedside lamp for this seemingly long discussion. "Also can you not go to bed just yet?"
She sighed, rubbing her temples over whatever Marty was going to drag her into this time. "Can you at least tell me why?"
Marty laughed on the other end and could imagine the annoyance over knowing she'd follow him regardless of what it was. "If I do, it'll just kill all of the fun— I should be out there in 10, be ready." He hung up the phone suddenly as she looked to it in her hands confused, setting it aside to look to the clock at the head of her room above the poster of Brian May.
1:02 a.m. it read, and who knew how much longer the night would continue onto thanks to this sudden change of events.
Pushing her bag and skateboard down to hit grass below gently, Amanda crawled out of her bedroom window and continued on she usually did whenever she snuck out past her curfew. Finally reaching the floor she was greeted by the night breeze suddenly sending a chill through her body as she shivered. Faintly seeing a figure coming by down the street towards her neck of the woods, she assumed this was her baby blue.
Amanda crossed her arms, pulling her long sleeve closer as he leapt off his skateboard to face her. "Little cold there, doe eyes? Here you can take my jacket," Marty immediately offered, taking off his own signature jean jacket that still held the Art in Revolution pin she'd given him on one of their trips out of town.
"Thanks but I'll be alright. Even better if you tell me what you've seemed to suddenly have planned for us," Amanda told him as he only gave her a smug grin as a response and started ahead of her, "Marty it's too late to be playing games!"
He turned back over to as she attempted to catch up to him and humored himself over her noticeable frustration. "Hope you can skate up a hill just as well. We might be awhile."
-ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ-
THE MOUNTAINTOP sure enough was a long trek from nearby her home in Hilldale as the two of teens finally reached the mountain point. City lights lay faintly out into the distance, peering out into the early morning no doubt. Looking down to her digital watch Amanda sighed under my breath; 2:13 am. Figuring they'd be out the rest of the night, she set her skateboard aside to lean out onto the very edge of the hill; the fear of heights not seeming to kick in with her fatigue and the view. Marty joined her soon enough as the two now looked on to the sleeping city below them.
Well, more or less looking at Hill Valley still silent down below.
Marty turned over to Amanda, again with her head in the skies. It made sense to picture her in the future as an astronomer of sorts with the way she talked about the stars painted out before them. The sense of wonder when she talked about space or even looked at space always brought on a warm feeling to him. Especially if it was just the two of them alone like they were now. Without much of a care of what the rest of their time hand in store for them.
"I come here a lot to think you know," Marty spoke up to say finally and she turned my attention to his now focused gaze, "It's quiet, it's secluded— it's nice."
Amanda tilted her head to him worried for being brought here in the first place. "Why are we up here, blue? I get that you're on the verge of some teenage angst, but you've gotta talk to me or we're both just literally sitting on the edge of nothing?"
He sighed under his breath, enough for her to understand this was actually fairly serious. "You ever think that you've screwed yourself over? Like all the things you did before— they're just leaving you with a shitty future."
"Well, not like being a teenager in a small town with very little outlets of creativity gives you much of an ability to fuck up your life completely."
"I'm screwing up the band," He admitted to her sadly. Knitting his brows together after saying this aloud he held his jacket close to his chest over the feeling that arose with the statement. "I'm gonna just end up dragging them down, I know it."
Amanda faltered on giving a response and remembered the exchange she had with Bobby earlier that night. "Look Marty, you haven't grown up yet? You've still got your whole life ahead of you." Laughing under her breath, he turned to her confused over the light-hearted manner she seemed to have despite him reflecting on the bad for once. "It's like that thing Doc's always saying? If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything."
Marty couldn't help to smile over the mention of their friend and laughed along with her. "It doesn't apply here."
"Tell Doc that and he'd tell you you're wrong." Noticing him soften, she reached out to take his hand and shook her head. "You're not screwing anything up, kid. You're doing better than anyone thinks you're capable of. I see it— I just hope you do too? I mean, I'm sure you don't only have me thinking that; you should talk to Jennifer about this too. She gives great advice you know."
Rolling his eyes at this with a chuckle under his breath in amusement, her short pep talk seemed to be enough to briefly lift up his spirits. "Y'know you're the only person I've taken up here right?"
Trying to take this as casually as possible, Amanda only shrugged her shoulders despite the hidden meaning that lay with him bringing this up. "That doesn't mean anything-"
"Amy, I can see me and Jen lasting, what, maybe a week into senior year before the two of us realize it was nothing more than a summer romance. I trust you more than anyone? And I don't plan on you being more than someone I knew in high school—" The two of them exchanged a longing glance to one another for a moment, softening just as they did at the cabin. "I care about you more than anything?"
"I care about you too. You're my best friend and-" Amanda stopped, playing the exchange out in her head and choosing her words carefully. Marty, however, was now hanging on the edge of his seat hopefully for her to say something in return despite the way she seemed to doubt what it was they were playing at nowadays. He was confident in himself that they cared about each other too deeply to keep fooling themselves.
That or it was simply the hopeless romantic idealist in him Amanda always seemed to strike down as being the opposite. She couldn't think ahead to something hopeful like he could. She was too stubborn and too much of a realist to do so.
"And you mean just as much to me too." He nodded, shoving her aside playfully. "Hey! You're the one getting all soft on me now."
"Oh can it doe eyes, it's not gonna be a usual sort of thing." Looking back out to the horizon Amanda barely glimpsed her watch, seeing it almost was 3 a.m.. "You know we're staying here until sunrise."
Amanda groaned deeply over this and laid back into the dirt behind her. "Marty I was hoping to get some rest before school! Not pull an all-nighter," She explained to him as he only laughed over her tale of woe.
"Fine, we'll go back soon. Can't I just enjoy the view a little longer," He said, despite watching her instead of the actual view of the city below.
Amanda didn't notice him actually meaning her and sat back up beside him. "Yea, we can stay a little longer."