When I woke I instantly felt my neck tighten as I gradually lifted it from the couches head rest. I was still in the same clothes from yesterday, and I hadn’t bothered to get up in the middle of the night.

“Hey, you awake?” I rubbed the sleep from my eye then looked at the girl from last. Her eyes were open and she laid upright  looking off into the dining room where the  withering roses I had threw on the table from last night laid shriveled.

“I can explain why you’re laying on my couch, if you can tell me what you were doing on my doorstep last night? ” She looked at me in confusion for a moment, then continued to stare at something that caught her interest more than me.

“Okay. You don’t remember.”

“Do you have anyone you can call? Mom, dad, brother, sister, uncle, aunt? Someone’s got to be worried about you.” I ranted uncomfortably. Her response to it all was a simple shake of her head.

“Okay. You don’t remember, anything.”

I ran my hand over my low fade that had grown enough for the short loose curls to form on the top of my head. I was due for a cut, but I just couldn’t find the time.

“So, I think i’m going to have to call the -”

“Where is the Professor?” She interjected in a panic. She tried to lift herself up , but fell back instead. She sighed in pain as she rolled over hiding her face in the sofa. I remember what Sora had told me earlier about aches and pains.

“Hold on let me get you some Tylenol.” I ran to the medicine cabinet. I grabbed the bottle and dispensed the last two tablets from the jar into my hand.

I went over to the kitchen and ran some tap water into a mug that Kat had brought for me two Birthday’s ago, my twenty first. It read “Hangover Medicine” in bold yellow lettering with a thin outline of black.  It had been the first birthday I spent with her, and she had been extra excited to give me her gift.

“I know you’ll love it!” she squealed while prancing up and down in my living room. Her hands were pressed behind her back.  Julian’s roommates sat with him, at the time, at the kitchen table eating take-out. They looked unamused by Kat’s antics. Back then his roommates couldn’t stand Kat, and she was ultimately the reason that two years later they moved out.

Julian casually walked over to kat and grabbed her giving her a light peck on her lips, “What is it?”.

Excitedly, she held a small box wrapped in bright red wrapping paper that read ‘happy birthday’ all over it with confetti. He unwrapped it patiently to see the mug. Julian looked from the mug to Kat who still had her enticing smile on her face.

“Thanks Babe.” I kissed her again giving her a quick hug.

“I knew you’d love it!” She smiled.

“Here take two”, I handed her the cup of water and some pills. She examined it for a second then downed it.

“Feeling better?” I asked. She nodded with a soft smile.

“That’s Good. So do you have anyone I call yet? I have work in like two hours.” She looked at me with a furrowed brow then shook her head.

“Well I can’t leave you here.” I said more to myself than I did to her.  I pulled the ottoman up to the sofa and took a seat leaning in close to her.

“What’s your name?” I quizzed.

“Ava” She replied with little thought.  

“Okay, When’s your Birthday?” At least knowing her name meant we were getting somewhere.

“March 3, 2539” She said with confidence. The next question I’d plan to ask quickly escaped my mind. I studied her face for what felt like an eternity to see if I could find a crack of a smile on her lips or a slither of a playful glint with in her eyes.

Did she just say she was born five hundred and twenty-five years from now? Because the more I stared the more serious she appeared.

“What year is this?”

“2562.” She replied immediately.

+

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Ava asked quietly. But Julian still didn’t say anything, and it started to make her worry.

“I’ve only been asleep since last night right?”

Julian only nodded.

“So then why are you looking at me like that!?” She shouted.

Julian jumped back surprised by her outburst, “It’s 2013.

“What, 2013?” Ava thought Julian was a nut case.

But it did start to explain a lot. Why he had such archaic technology in his room. Like the odd monitor set in his living space, and the other odd ends in his  space where Ava presumed he ate. What surprised her  the most though was the vibrant red plant that laid on his table freely. She had never seen such a thing in the flesh. It is all what made her believe in fact that she wasn’t in 2562.

And let her not forget to mention the extremely strange choice of outfit that Julian had. Ava found it impossible to explain what he was wearing, but she remember seeing them in her history textbooks. She now wished she had paid a little more attention in that class back in prepatory school.

Either he really enjoyed the 2000s period or she had managed to end up in 2013, which these days was not hard to believe.

Julian pulled Ava out of her train of thought. “I really don’t want to leave you here right now, but I also really can’t afford to miss work today.”