Class of 1983: A Young Adult Time Travel Romance

by Victoria Maxwell

  “I'm so confused.” She shook her head and looked up at him pleadingly. Why was he being like this?

  “Lacey needed you. Ben and Janet needed you. I needed you.” His blue eyes flashed with the truth. He was hurt. She’d hurt him. Of all the things she meant to do, hurting Sammy was not one of them.

  “I'm sorry,” she stammered.

  “I’m…” he shook his head. “I just can't talk to you right now. I’m sorry.” And he closed the door on her.

  She staggered down his drive and continued to walk back into town. Her feet were sore, and her heart was breaking all over again, and she just felt so confused about everything.

  She needed Janet.

  * * *

  When she eventually got to the payphone outside Super Pan, Peggy put the spare change she’d been carrying around for weeks into the phone and typed in the only phone number she had ever learned by heart.

  * * *

  “I'm so glad you came back,” Janet said as Peggy slid into the front seat of the Escort.

  “I don't know why I did,” Peggy said, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

  “Come on, let's get you home.”

  Home.

  She wanted nothing more than to curl up in her very own polka dot covered single bed in her own room. In Janet's house. In 1983. And that was where they were going. And even though it felt painful as hell, it still felt a little bit wonderful.

  Fifty-One

  Explanations

  Janet threw Peggy's bags onto the floor by the door, took her hand and dragged her into the kitchen. “I'll make tea,” she said.

  “Tea is the last thing I want,” Peggy said, slumping onto the bar stool.

  “Coffee?”

  Peggy nodded.

  “What happened?” Janet asked when the kettle was on.

  “I don't know,” Peggy said, shaking her head.

  “Well, the good news is Sammy's alive,” Janet said as she got out the Bryan Adams mug and another plain blue one. “But I guess you already knew that, or you wouldn't be here. How did you find out anyway? Did I tell you?”

  “Enough with the questions Janet.” Peggy put her hands to her head, this time travel headache was going to be epic.

  “Of course, you have a lot to think about.” Janet poured some coffee, milk and one sugar into the Bryan Adams mug and slid it across the counter towards her along with a glass of water and some painkillers.

  “I went to see him. Rochelle was there. I... I don't know. He told me to go away.” She looked up at Janet, her eyes glistening.

  “He's going through a hard time, I think you were the last person he expected to see.”

  “He's going through a hard time?” Peggy scoffed. “What about what I've been going through? I've spent the last month thinking he was dead! It's been complete torture.”

  “You don't know, do you?” Janet asked slowly.

  “Don't know what?”

  There was silence as Janet's face fell.

  “What?” Peggy demanded.

  “It was Nick.”

  “What was Nick?” Peggy shook her head in confusion.

  “The accident still happened Peggy.”

  “No, he's alive...” Peggy said, looking up from her coffee.

  “Sammy didn't die, but Nick did.”

  Peggy gasped.

  “The report was wrong. The officers on the scene knew it was Sammy's car, everyone in town knew that car. They found a body and assumed it was Sammy. But Nick was driving that night.”

  “No,” Peggy whispered.

  “Nick was drunk, he was speeding and hit the tree. The whole town is in mourning Peg. He was well liked, he was a good kid who made a dumb mistake.”

  Peggy shook her head.

  “You missed the funeral. Sammy spoke on behalf of the family. The cool and calm Sammy Ruthven we've all come to know and love has been a complete mess these last few weeks.”

  “I should go back and tell him I didn't know.” She jumped up from her stool and felt Janet's strong grip on her hand.

  “No, not now.”

  “I have to tell him I didn't know, I never would have left if I had known!” She struggled to get out of the teacher's grip.

  “Don't take this the wrong way, but right now you aren't his priority. Let him be.”

  “But I came back to be with him!” She escaped from her teacher's clutches. “I came back here for him!”

  “Peggy,” Janet said calmly. “In life you need to make decisions for yourself, not for anyone else. If you only came back here for some boy, then you might have made a serious mistake about your future.”

  “He's not just some boy Janet, he's the love of my life. But then, you wouldn't know anything about that.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

  “I know more than you think,” Janet said.

  “Whatever,” Peggy rolled her eyes.

  “I know you're upset. I know this isn't you.”

  Peggy pretended to ignore her.

  “If you really love him, you'll give him what he needs right now, and that means not going over there and apologizing just so you’ll feel better and he’ll take you back.”

  Peggy stood up, grabbed the side of the bench with all her might and screamed.

  “Why did you come back Peg? Was it just for Sammy? Or was it for everything? For all of this?” she gestured around the little kitchen.

  “I don't know, maybe it was the dumbest mistake of my life.” She fell to the floor and began to cry.

  “Why are you really here? You need to ask yourself that.”

  But Peggy didn't have to ask herself anything. She knew there was more to being back than Sammy. She knew it was Janet, Lacey and Ben, even Tricia. It was the Fire Station, Super Pan, it was the music, the clothes, the movies. It was having to call people on the landline. It was every single little thing.

  “I’m sorry,” she mumbled as she looked up at Janet.

  “Your room is still made up, you should get some rest,” Janet said.

  * * *

  “Where are you?” asked Lacey in a tone that was less than enthusiastic when she realized who it was on the other end of the phone.

  “I'm back.”

  “For God's sake girl, where have you been?”

  “I went back to my present,” said Peggy.

  “Why?” asked Lacey.

  “I couldn't deal with it,” Peggy said truthfully.

  “Welcome to my awesome world where 'dealing with it' has become my daily past time.”

  “I thought it was Sammy.”

  “What?”

  “In the accident. I heard it on the news and I just, I ran away.”

  “It wasn't Sammy,” Lacey said.

  “I know, I only just found out.”

  “It was Nick. Remember Nick?”

  “Please Lacey.”

  “Our friend Nick, Sammy's best friend Nick. Nick who took Sammy's car home when Sammy went with you to walk you home?”

  “You think this is my fault?”

  “Yes… maybe, I don’t know. But I am damn pissed that you freaked out and left us to deal with it all without you.”

  “I know.”

  “How could you possibly know?”

  “Because for the last month I've been torturing myself and bleeding out of my heart every night because I thought it was Sammy. Every night I dreamt of him dying. Every day all I could think of was that I'd never see him again, and then I come back and all anyone can do is hate on me.” Peggy felt hot tears stream down her face.

  “I'll be right over.” The phone clicked, and Peggy put down the receiver.

  * * *

  “I'm still so mad at you, but it's good to see you,” Lacey threw her arms around her friend and held her tight.

  “I'm so sorry Lace,” she muffled into Lacey's hair.

  “It’s been really hard,” Lacey said making herself at home by plonking down into one of the red armchairs in the lounge. “We’ve
been staying at home for days at a time and not answering each other's calls and then someone will answer, and they'll say we should all go out, and we all go out and get drunk. We don’t dance, we just sit there. Then we all stay home for the next few days not seeing each other again.”

  “How is he?” asked Peggy folding her legs up on the couch.

  “Sammy? He's kind of a mess to be honest,” Lacey shrugged. She looked exhausted. She was hardly wearing any make-up and the red shirt she had on washed her out completely.

  “I want to talk to him, but Janet keeps telling me to leave him alone.”

  “That's good advice.”

  “I saw Rochelle at his house.”

  Lacey shrugged. “I don't know anything about that.”

  “Did he ask about me or anything?”

  Lacey shook her head.

  “What am I meant to do?”

  Lacey shrugged again. “I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you that things have been rough around here.”

  “How do I get him back?”

  “I don't know if you can.”

  Peggy felt a new wave of tears building behind her eyes.

  “He's messed up right now,” Lacey went on, “and you leaving was a big part of why. You can't expect everything to just go back to how it was overnight.”

  Peggy nodded. “But I just need him to know why I left. That I thought it was him. That I nearly threw myself into the God damn Grand Canyon because I thought it was him.”

  “I'll tell him for you,” Lacey promised.

  Fifty-Two

  The Fire Station III

  Another night of being ignored by Sammy Ruthven in a bar was nothing new. Although this time the air was not filled with sexual tension but instead thick and heavy with grief.

  It had been two months since Prom, and it was decided that everyone - friends, acquaintances, relatives and classmates would have a drink for Nick at his favorite bar. It was debatable that the Fire Station was Nick's favorite as Peggy wasn't sure she'd ever seen Nick have a really good time, but nonetheless everyone was there. They were wearing white sweatbands around their wrists or upper arms with a simple blue letter N stitched on. The sweatbands had been stitched by June-Belle who was sitting at the bar looking very out of place. Horace was looking only slightly less out of place talking to some of his friends at the other end of the bar.

  “Anyone need another drink?” asked Lacey.

  Peggy and Sammy both shook their heads.

  “I do,” said Ben.

  “Me too,” said Tricia and the three of them went to the bar leaving Peggy alone with Sammy for the first time since she’d seen him at his door.

  “I talked to Lacey,” he said, looking into his drink. He hadn't looked at her all night.

  “I thought it was you…” Peggy began, “I'm not trying to give you an excuse.” She shook her head. “I totally messed up, there is no excuse for running away. I should have stayed, but I wasn’t thinking straight, at all.”

  “Yeah, what you did sucked big time.” He looked at her for the first time since she’d seen him at his door the day she returned. His eyes were full of pain, there was no smirk on his lips, but he still made her heart flip over.

  “I thought it was you,” she said again, wanting so desperately to crawl across the great emotional divide that was now between them. Wanting him to take her in his arms and cry and laugh and just be together like they were before.

  He looked away, back to the empty dance floor. No one was dancing tonight and even the music was a little quieter and slower.

  Lacey returned and placed a tray of drinks on the table.

  “I got bourbons and cokes, because that was his favorite drink. Not my favorite, but...” Lacey took a large swig and handed drinks over to her friends.

  Peggy lifted a glass to her own lips and took a sip. She made a face, it was strong. She pushed it back into the middle of the table.

  Rochelle stumbled over towards the table, clearly having had more than a few bourbons herself. She leant over the table, quite obviously presenting her breasts to Sammy who glanced at them but looked mainly in the direction of her eyes.

  “Wanna dance?” she slurred.

  “You should probably get a taxi Ro,” Sammy said, standing up to help her.

  “Ro?” whispered Lacey into Peggy's ear and giving her a knowing look.

  “I'll dance with you,” Peggy said.

  “You?” slurred Rochelle.

  “Sure, why not?” asked Peggy.

  “Uh, I don't know... because you hate me.” Rochelle looked confused and teetered slightly backwards on her heels.

  “Come dance it off.” Peggy squeezed past Lacey, taking Rochelle by the hand and onto the dance floor leaving Lacey slack jawed.

  “Why are you doing this?” Rochelle yelled at her as she began swaying in time with the power ballad that was currently blaring from the speakers.

  “Doing what?”

  “Dancing with me?” Rochelle stumbled and fell into a woman dressed in a biker jacket who was standing near the dancefloor.

  “Hey! You made me spill my drink!” shouted the woman.

  “You got in my way,” Rochelle shouted back as she nearly fell over again.

  “Rochelle,” warned Peggy trying to grab Rochelle and hold her up.

  “Bitch,” spat the woman, and before Peggy even knew what was happening, she was in the middle of a fight.

  Peggy tried her best to hold Rochelle back, but her upper body strength was no match for Rochelle's fists of fury. The glass the woman had been holding smashed on the floor and Rochelle was in a frenzy, throwing random punches and flailing limbs in the direction of the woman who started screaming like a banshee and grabbing at Rochelle's long brittle locks.

  Peggy grabbed the woman’s wrist and dug in her pink nails before she even knew what she was doing. The woman let out a yelp and let go, causing Rochelle to fall back into Peggy leaving both of them in a heap on the sticky cigarette butt encrusted dance floor.

  Seriously, how many times was she going to end up lying on the floor of this bar?

  “Awesome,” Jonas laughed as he held a stack of glasses above them.

  “Hey!” called out Sammy as he ran across the dance floor, landing on his knees in front of them. He checked they were OK and stood up to face their attacker who was puffing up her hair and looking quite proud of herself.

  “We've just lost someone,” Sammy said to her calmly.

  “You'll lose her in a minute,” the woman said, her eyes narrowing in recognition at Sammy's face. “Hey, aren't you that guy that had to pay for Jonas' golden tooth?” She laughed. “I’m surprised you’d even show your face around here again.”

  “I paid my debt to Jonas,” Sammy said. “And now I think you better leave.” Ben and bartender Greg came to stand behind him.

  “Or what? Are you going to hit a woman?” She put her hands on her hips, taunting him.

  “He won't, but I will.” Tricia appeared and stood next to Sammy folding her arms.

  The woman looked thoughtful. “This place blows anyway,” she said before walking off towards the door.

  “This place is awesome, you blow,” shouted Lacey after her as she helped Peggy to her feet while Ben helped Rochelle.

  “No one talks like that about the Fire Station,” Lacey said.

  “You OK Ro?” Sammy asked.

  Peggy winced, why wasn’t he asking about her?

  * * *

  “I’m fine,” Rochelle said taking herself back to the booth and sitting down.

  Greg went to get her a water and returned with a tray of drinks for everyone.

  “I’m on break,” Greg said folding his arms and leaning casually against the table.

  Ben looked up at him. “I could use some air,” he shrugged and followed him out. After a few minutes, Peggy followed after them, she needed some air too.

  She stood out the front of the bar looking across the road to the parking lot, to wh
ere Sammy's car had been that night before Nick had decided to take it home. Ben and Greg were nowhere to be seen, so she started walking towards Dee’s when she heard Ben’s voice down the alley behind the Fire Station. When she turned into the alley the last thing she expected to see was Ben and Greg kissing.

  “Oh,” she gasped as they looked over at her.

  Ben let go of Greg, swore and kicked the dumpster behind him.

  Greg grabbed his hand. “Ben,” Greg said. “Peggy's cool.”

  Peggy walked towards them. “Sorry,” she said. “You know I won't say anything.”

  “Maybe it's time people knew,” Greg said looking up at Ben.

  “No,” said Ben. “Peggy, if my dad ever found out he'd kill me. He would really kill me. Please.”

  “I won't tell a soul,” she said. “But Greg, you need to tell Lacey something. I'm so over hearing about how much she loves you and I think it might be time for her to move on.”

  Greg laughed awkwardly. “It’s a deal.”

  * * *

  When Peggy went back in everyone was drunkenly dancing, except Sammy. She went over to him. She wasn’t sure that she should, but she just wanted to be next to him.

  “I never wanted to end it,” Sammy said, swirling around his drink in his hand.

  “Do you… do you want to get back together?” Peggy asked.

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  “Oh,” she said.

  “I really needed you and you were gone and that was really hard.”

  She nodded her head. She didn’t know what more to say and so she looked for an escape.

  Ben was standing at the bar talking to Greg who was showing off throwing around a cocktail shaker, Tricia must have been pretty drunk because she was talking to Horace at a table in the corner, Leigh and Rochelle were talking to the only other guys in the place and Lacey was dancing by herself on the dancefloor.

  When the lights finally came on everyone groaned. No one wanted to leave and face the light of day.