the alarms were still blaring as dustin drove the mini cart through the halls. "jesus, slow down!" steve groaned, afraid of the pace that dustin and erica were driving the thing at.
"yeah, what is this, like, the indy 500?" meadow agreed, sitting next to steve with her head on his shoulder. he had one arm around her protectively, but everything else about his posture and state showed how drugged he was.
"it's the indy 300." steve corrected.
robin shook her head. "no, dingus, it's 500!"
"it's 300!" he insisted.
meadow laughed at their antics. "let's say a million." she reasoned. all three of them laughed loudly, throwing their heads back.
"what is wrong with them?" erica asked.
"i don't know!" dustin replied.
"dustin, look out!" erica yelled, watching as he hit a row of stacked containers.
steve yelled while meadow groaned, both moving in the back of the cart from the impact of the canisters. dustin looked over his shoulder at them, "you guys alright back there?" they all groaned in unison, putting their hands to their heads. "they're fine." dustin whispered to erica. he then got out of the vehicle and opened the back door, opening the trunk-like space that the other three were in. "come on. we gotta go, now."
when none of them moved, dustin grabbed steve by the arm. "ow! we're coming!" he insisted angrily.
they got back into the elevator, and steve began cheering and whooping giddily as he stood on top of a wheeled cart. as the elevator moved up, the cart rolled about on the floor, making steve die of laughter. "you look like you're surfing!" meadow said to him.
"woah, babe, i'm surfing!" he cheered, making robin laugh as she helped meadow steer the cart.
"they seem drunk." erica said to dustin.
he shook his head. "why would they be drunk?"
"i'm a natural!" steve yelled. "check it out!" robin pulled the cart too harshly and sent steve flying across the elevator and into some boxes. he just laughed, though, not bothering to get up.
robin laughed. "wipeout!" she said, making meadow clutch her sides from the pain of laughing so hard.
dustin moved over to steve, placing a hand on his forehead. "he's burning up." he told erica.
"you're burning up." steve countered. "ow!" he complained as dustin peeled his eye open with his fingers.
"his pupils are super dilated." dustin commented.
erica looked down at them. "maybe he's drugged." she suggested.
"boop!" steve said, putting his finger on dustin's nose.
dustin patted steve's face. "steve, are you drugged?" he asked.
"how many times, dad?" steve asked in a mocking voice. "i don't do drugs. it's only marijuana." he poked dustin's nose again.
the younger boy wasn't impressed. "this isn't funny, okay? i need to know what they did to you. are you gonna die on us?"
"boop!" steve said again, putting his full hand on dustin's nose.
"oh yeah!" meadow said, falling onto the floor so that she was laying next to steve on the pile of boxes. "they gave us.. they put this needle. this needle in our neck." she pointed to her neck. "they put a needle.. we are SO high!" she laughed, unable to coordinate a full sentence.
dustin looked over at her. "my goodness.." he said to himself. "okay, they're going to be looking for us up there so i need to know where you put your car." he said to meadow.
"oh, can we make a pit stop at the food court?" steve asked.
"i would kill for a hot dog on a stick." robin agreed.
dustin nodded. "yes. food. you can have as much food as you want, but only if you tell me where your car is parked." he turned to steve.
"uh-oh." steve replied.
"uh-oh?" dustin questioned.
"the car's off the board." steve said. "they took the keys. the russians, they took the keys. like, forever ago. that's a bummer, right?" the three who were drugged all laughed.
meadow put her head on steve's chest as she laughed. "they got mine too." she opened her pockets for proof, laughing into steve's chest as it rumbled with his own laughter. "man that sucks."
the elevator stopped and steve helped meadow to her feet (the smallest and last piece of his sober self kicking in for a moment) as they followed dustin and erica outside. "oh, my god, that tastes so good!" robin said as she breathed in the outside air. "ahhh!" she stuck her tongue out as if it were snow, spinning around. "steve, can you taste the air?"
steve stuck his tongue out, mimicking her movement. "i taste it! i taste it!" he exclaimed.
"shit!" dustin yelled as a group of the russian soldiers saw them. they began to run after them, and dustin turned, pushing his sister forward and into a door.
"why are we running?" steve asked, obviously no longer able to understand the situation, following meadow and dustin anyway. they were now all inside of the mall, which was fully packed as usual. dustin led the group to the back door entrance to the movie theater. if she wasn't so drugged, meadow would've recognized it as the place she had been taking the kids all summer long.
steve took a bag of popcorn from the trash can as they made their way into the theater. back to the future was playing, and meadow looked up at the screen, seeing marty mcfly. the group scurried down to seats in the front. luckily, there were three open spots that steve, meadow, and robin slipped into.
"these seats suck ass." meadow complained.
"yeah, these seats blow." steve agreed.
dustin shook his head in annoyance. "then don't watch the movie."
"we wanna watch it." robin argued.
"then watch it!" dustin said loudly, making all of the people around him shush him. "whatever you do, don't.. go.. anywhere."
"fine, dad." steve said. meadow snickered, looking between her brother and boyfriend.
dustin rolled his eyes, looking down at them. "i love you." he said to his sister before taking erica and moving to different seats in the theater.
meadow didn't respond as he walked away, fully captivated by the large screen in front of her. "the screen.. it's so wide." she mumbled to robin, who was sitting on the other side of steve. the three all nodded, amazed.
"what's going on?" robin asked steve after a few minutes.
"no idea." he replied.
"the car is a time machine, duh." meadow said, looking at the delorean as it skidded across the screen.
meadow had lost track of time, and didn't remember when she and her high friends had gotten out of the theater. they stood by the water fountain outside, steve hunched over it drinking. "so, like, i wasn't totally focused in there or anything," robin began, "but.. i'm pretty sure.. that mom was trying to bang her son."
meadow stumbled around the empty space, taking dramatic steps as if she were walking for the first time. she tried to recall the plot of the movie, but nothing made sense anymore as she got lost in the red carpet.
steve looked up from the fountain he was drinking from, taking in robin's observation. "wait, wait, the hot chick was alex p keaton's mom?"
"yeah, i'm pretty sure." meadow agreed.
"but they're the same age." steve said, confused.
robin shook her head. "no, but he went back in time."
steve looked over at them. "then why is it called back to the future?"
"he has to go back to the future." meadow said. "like when he's in the past, he goes to the future which is actually the present."
"wh.. what?" steve asked.
robin grabbed his arm. "it's my turn, you've had enough." she pried him away from the water fountain.
meadow followed steve as he looked up at the ceiling. "wow." he said, looking at the twinkling lights. "hey, robin." he called her over. "the ceiling.. it's beautiful." he said. meadow did a spin, looking up at it. they looked up at the ceiling in awe for a few more minutes before all three grunted a little, feeling their stomachs start to hurt hurt.
the trio ran to the bathroom, and meadow held her hair back as she flew into the stall next to steve, throwing up all the contents of her stomach.