Jasmine Lewis never expected to experience anything like this. One night, she drunkenly passes out in her bed beside her husband of thirteen years in the year 2016. But when she awakes, she realizes she is back in 1991 in her childhood home.

She realizes that whatever force took her back in time, wanted her to right what was wrong. But, she realizes too late she may have changed too much. Will Jasmine be satisfied with the choices she made or did the changes alter her future too much?

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or otherwise, is unintentional and purely coincidental. 

I stumbled in and had no idea what time it was. Possibly late but I was in the mood to drink some more! The husband was already in the bed, snoring and oblivious to my drunken state. Which was a good thing; I was somewhat of a clumsy drunk and stumbled on nearly everything that was in my way!

I had no idea how but I made it to the bed after stripping of my clothes. Guess another drink would have to wait; now that I was there, I wasn’t moving! I sighed and tried to look at the new ring I had acquired that night; the live band was selling them, some sort of mood rings or something. For some reason, no one bought them; they were interested in the buttons, rubber bracelets, beer cozies and t-shirts. I bought one of each; they were my absolute favorite local band!

My vision became blurry… well, blurrier than it was before, as I tried to look at the ring. I remember thinking how pretty it was and weird that it changed colors every so often, something I wasn’t used to a mood ring doing! Maybe I was more drunk than I thought but I could’ve sworn that the damn ring was steadily changing colors as my eyes became like lead. I didn’t feel right. I wanted so badly to wake up Allen, to let him know that I felt funny. But I couldn’t keep my eyes open to save my life! When they shut, I felt myself fall into a deep sleep and hoped that I would be able to wake up.

I felt myself ease out of sleep. I had no idea how long I was out and was a bit afraid to open my eyes. My brain instead tried to concentrate on the music I heard. Music…? Was my phone ringing? I slightly groaned; no, it was the radio. Damnit; I had set the alarm wrong, again! There was no telling how long the damn thing went off; Allen and I both could sleep through a fire! He was late for work…

I stopped panicking when I realized two things. One: the clock in our room didn’t pick up any radio station… at all. Not even a hint of a signal; it was always white noise, no matter what. This station was crisp and clear. And, two: the deejay was boasting about it being the “number one station in Houston”. In… Houston…??

I immediately opened my eyes and blinked a few times. I was dreaming. I had to be! I was no longer in my bed along with my husband but… in my childhood bedroom back in Houston! I looked around: posters of a few of my favorite Oilers graced the walls, along with a few Rockets, the entire Cougars basketball squad and music artists. Peering through the bars that served as a ladder for the top bunk, I could see my cream dresser that housed my radio clock alarm, my boom box and my various school books. On the right was my large glass TV stand where the Super Nintendo, a bunch of books, a VCR and of course, the TV was.

Everything was too… vivid to be a dream. But, it had to be. I laid back down, telling myself that over and over again. Usually, when I realized that I was dreaming, I would automatically snap out of it. But… nothing happened this time. The radio still played, now going through the birthdays and reminded everyone of the mystery song that was coming up. I slowly opened my eyes. This… this wasn’t a dream. I either died, went to hell and was forced to relive my teen years or… I had somehow traveled back into time.

I slowly tried to study myself. My eyes were blurry all to hell; my contacts were gone. I searched for my glasses and gasped when I found them on top of a pile of clothes by the side of my bed; they were… my first pair of glasses. I was fourteen, again. I looked at my arms and hands. I was rail thin yet again. All of my tattoos were gone. Even my wedding bands and my anniversary ring; that noticeable tan line from wearing the rings after fifteen years of marriage had disappeared! I ran my tongue across my teeth; no more tongue ring.

I slowly got out of bed, expecting my brother to hop down from his top bunk. I glanced at the clock and slowly remembered: he was already on his way to school. I listened to the radio again; a song that I hadn’t heard in so long was playing and then the deejay went on about it being a new release. He went through his usual routine, telling listeners the date, the weather and the morning traffic. It was Friday, March 1st. Looking at my Houston Cougars calendar confirmed my initial fear: I would indeed be fourteen in four months; it was 1991. My brother’s birthday was tomorrow… and then I froze. Whatever force took me back in time? I at least had a clue as to why; they wanted me to correct the past.

I didn’t look forward to going to school; I hadn’t been in school in over twenty years! I was painfully reminded why once I got there: the part of being bullied all because I was smart and didn’t have the latest fashion sense… or hairstyle. Instead of shying away, I held my head high. I was only going to be stuck for two days; might as well give my tormentors heart attacks! Everyone noticed the change and surprisingly, everyone kind of liked it. It made me wonder how this would change my future as well and I had hoped it would be for the best!

The next day arrived and my heart hadn’t thumped so hard in my life! I told my then six-year-old brother, Raymond happy birthday and promised him an awesome day.

The memory of what was supposed to happen that day made my blood run cold. I was to go over to my dad’s, who lived in the front of our apartment complex and beg him to take me to the mall. I would lie and say that I wanted to meet some friends there as well as pick up a gift for Raymond. But in reality, I would be meeting my boyfriend there. I would indeed buy Ray a toy but while Ivan and I decide to walk back to my house, he would suggest sneaking into the gym of a high school to “take a break”. I would be forced to lose my virginity there… and I planned for that not to happen!

So, when Ivan called, I immediately broke up with him. I could’ve gave him some type of excuse, saying that it wasn’t him, it was me or some bullshit. But seeing as though I would be back in 2016 in the morning, I said “fuck it” and bluntly told him: I’m not giving you any opportunity to rape me. This time, when I went over to daddy’s, I suggested that we both go and pick something out for my brother. My mom had taken him over our grandmother’s and they wouldn’t be back for a while. It turned into some sort of father/daughter deal and I even made my brother a cake; he told me I was the best sister in the whole wide world!

I was overly satisfied as I laid down that night. My brother had played himself stupid and was knocked out, clutching to the toy trucks I bought him. We had always had a solid relationship. But I felt that this little act would change things for the better. I smiled as I started to doze. There was a bit of a warm feeling to be back in time. To see people I hadn’t seen in ages, to see how healthy my mom and dad looked back then. To be back in one of my favorite neighborhoods. To stop the sexual assault that would haunt me for years to come. I had only hoped that the little that I did wouldn’t change a whole lot in my true present.

I didn’t hear any sort of alarm go off but I did feel the sunlight on my eyes. Oh, shit; I forgot to set the alarm clock, again! Allen was gonna kill me; he couldn’t afford to be late anymore! I popped up to shake him awake, to apologize profusely! But… he wasn’t there. I was still in that bunkbed, still in my childhood room. What…? How?! Was I… stuck? I thought I did what I was supposed to do; the only thing of significant regret from the other day was going with Ivan! I stopped that! Was I not supposed to?! Why the hell was I taken back in time, then?!

I sat there, silently panicking. To be fair, I didn’t know if there were any particular rules to this. Maybe there were other things I had to do before warping back to my present time. Still didn’t uncomplicate things. My mom popped her head in the door, to make sure that I was okay. I told her I wasn’t feeling well. When she made a snide remark about the cake I made, I shrugged it off and simply stayed in bed. What was I supposed to do, now? Well, the answer was definitely obvious: I had to possibly relive my teen years… something I had no plans of doing!

It took a week to make me realize that I was indeed stuck in the past. I didn’t know how to take that. Well, guess I had no other choice but to relive my teen years! Since I was stuck, I took the opportunity to make more changes. I knew things that I hadn’t known back then and I put it to good use. I forced my mom to take me and my brother to the dentist and the doctor. I became aware of my eating habits and worked out regularly. I knew how to braid and put in weaves and while I was somewhat teased about wearing weaves now, it wasn’t as bad as being bullied about not having my hair done. In fact, there were a few girls at school who started asking me to do their own hair.

With that being said, I even changed the way I acted in school. Who would’ve thought that by just having a don’t care attitude would draw more people to you? By the time summer hit, I had more things to do than I could shake a stick at! When I wasn’t busy hanging out with people I never imagined would even speak to me, I concentrated on how to make even better grades… and my basketball skills.

Living in the past wasn’t so bad, now. Of course, I missed Allen terribly; I thought about finding a way to contact him. Then I realized that he was only ten at that point… and it weirded me out that if I had known him right then and there, it was a possibility that he and Ray would be play buddies; they were only four years apart! I tried not to think about that and relished in reliving the good moments as well as some new ones. I was even making some money on the side, doing hair!

Accepting the fact that I was stuck also made the time go back faster. I made the basketball team this time around and was better than I expected to be (doing a bit of homework on some plays and practicing them helped greatly). I opted not to get involved with any of the guys I had before, especially knowing that we would be moving to Nevada the next year, in 93. There wasn’t anything I could do to change that; I tried and tried to talk my mom out of not getting involved with Manny. But because I was a child, she wouldn’t listen. It was somewhat of a pain to know the things I knew and not be listened to.

Next thing I knew, we were indeed moving to Nevada, to that hole in the wall town. It actually hurt more than it did before; I left a lot more friends this time around! At least I didn’t leave a boyfriend behind; wasn’t as comforting but it felt fair. Moving to Nevada made me realize the other moments I would have there, the good ones… and the bad. With what I knew about how my relationship would end with Monica, I didn’t bother making friends with her or any of the other neighborhood kids. So to them, I was the “stuck up country bitch” that thought she was too good to be around them. That was fine: Monica would eventually prove my mother’s instincts right and the others wouldn’t be there for much longer as it was. The only disheartening thing was that I wouldn’t befriend Mr. Thomas, Monica’s dad.

Another dilemma appeared: my relationship with Nate. It was a curse and a blessing that I knew so much about things yet to happen. In the “original” past, Nate and I met during a spring break my senior year, a week before prom. He would eventually become my prom date and my first fiancé. I loved him so much that I turned down the scholarship that would take me back home to be with him… only to become absolutely heartbroken four years later. I had a chance to redo all of that, to do things totally different with him. I could possibly erase the heartbreak.

After considerate thinking, I got my wish. I altered my relationship with Nate and to me, it was the best thing I changed after breaking up with Ivan! With me so into my look, grades and basketball career… I decided to not have a relationship with him! It definitely was for the best; I couldn’t see any way to avoid the heartache that would endure.

So, yeah; senior year saw me as the most popular person in school. I was a starter for the basketball team, in the Honor Society, class president… and on track to be the salutatorian. Which was fine by me; before, I had graduated two hundred and something out of three hundred seniors! Instead of taking the ASVAB to go into the military, I took my SATs and ACT this time around, earning marks high enough to basically go to any college I wanted. I went from almost putting an ad in the paper for a prom date to having several choices lined up! I chose one of my dearest friends, Ed Sanders who sat in the back with me, Quincey and Damon in World History, acting a fool every day! That was something that I didn’t want to change; how the four of us would almost always get in trouble in that class (we still never got caught cheating on tests; it wasn’t our fault that the teacher would leave the answers on his desk and we were allowed in there during lunch)! Another thing that changed for prom: Ed was the one who took my virginity!

We were a surprisingly cute couple but we both knew that it wouldn’t last. I would be definitely going back home to attend the University of Houston, taking advantage of at least one free scholarship. There were no hard feelings about it; he was going to North Carolina, anyway but we said that we would always remain the best of friends.

I then realized what was happening. It was definite that I was going to college and not wasting thirteen years of my life in Fallon, NV. But that meant not meeting the other people that played a large part of half of my twenties: Evan and his wife, Regina; weird ass Pete, Lance and Stephanie… none of them. It was even possible that… I wouldn’t meet Allen. While I had an overwhelming feeling that my purpose of travelling back in time was to right what was wrong, I had a feeling that I may had went a bit too far with my changes!

But… I knew all about them. And there were quite a few relationships with others that I kept intact. So… things were truly up to me. I held onto my own fate. Because if things weren’t meant to be at all, I wouldn’t remember any of it. But as it stood, I thought about Allen a lot. I figured: whatever happened, all I had to do was come back to Nevada in seven years and make sure I was in the club on that faithful July 5th night! What could possibly happen to deter that…?