1996_90s Flashback Series by Kirsty McManus

Author:Kirsty McManus [McManus, Kirsty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

I’m not sure how long I cower in that stranger’s front yard, but I’m glad they don’t seem to be home. I know I’m being totally irrational. After all, I should have expected this. Of course Ed has a past. Just because he’s never told me about it, doesn’t mean it never existed. And this was when I was sixteen! I had just broken up with Todd, so I can’t talk.

But what he seemed to have there was way more serious than my stupid high school fling. And she was so pretty! And confident! Ed was always going on about how I needed to be more outgoing. Was he thinking about this girl when he said it?

I wonder how many other girlfriends he had between her and me. It could be dozens. Or it could just be her. Ed was eighteen in 1996. He could technically have dated her for another six years before I came along.

I finally stretch out my legs and walk off in the direction of The Palace. I check my reflection in the side mirror of a nearby parked car and see that my eyes are puffy and my skin is all pink. I didn’t even bring my sunglasses with me. I can’t go to the mall looking like this.

And then I spot the perfect location for brooding. An internet café. The interior is dark and almost deserted. I go to the counter and pay for a computer, sitting right in the corner, as far away from the door as possible.

I stare at the bulky PC and monitor on the desk in front of me.

What am I supposed to do now?

I half-heartedly log on and an AltaVista search box appears on the screen. I have no idea what to type. The news sites didn’t even properly exist back then. All I remember doing is sending emails and chatting to US college boys online.

Interestingly, I still have the same Hotmail address I had at sixteen. The realisation makes me laugh as I type in the email’s web address. What password would I have used in 1996? I had a habit of using celebrity crush names, but I don’t know who I would have been into at the time.

And then I remember the spine of my diary. John! I type in John, plus my favourite number, which is thirteen. My first attempt with everything in lower-case doesn’t work, but the second one with a capital J logs me in. I feel like I’ve just won the lottery.

I have lots of emails from Kelsey, and a bunch from the aforementioned college boys. Jeez. Some of them were intense! One guy called Lex declared his love for me, and I never even knew what he looked like. Did I just shrug it off as a joke? Another one was trying to arrange a time so we could chat more intimately. Ew. I guess the internet always had the potential for exploitation.

I skim through the messages from Kelsey. I’d forgotten that

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