Present Nostalgia

Complete Story

Author's Note: If you wish to give me feedback, or have a story idea you’d love to see written, feel free to shoot me an email at: achuloh.verkanto at gmail dot com

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Present Nostalgia

Elizabeth thought it was cute the way her husband Phillip would get interested in the latest technology. Sure, it sometimes meant she wouldn't see him for long periods of time, as he played around with new tech in the basement he had set up as a man cave, but whenever his initial curiosity had been sated, he always returned to the world of the living room and talked excitedly with his wife about the latest thing, and showed her around. She was used to hearing, "it's a little rough around the edges now, but in a few years this'll be in every household in America," and then seeing her husbands disappointment as the streamlined version never came out, and the companies slowly stopped supporting their products.

This week, Phillip had somehow managed to pull a few strings and become one of the alpha testers for a promising new technology that combined virtual reality technology with memory manipulating technology to let people vividly relive past memories.

Elizabeth had been a little nervous about her husband using something that would mess around with his head, but as days wore on, and she could hear her husband reliving vacations and watching movies for the first time, and a dozen other happy memories, she became more and more curious what it would be like to use the headset.

As she understood it, from her husbands very dumbed down explanation, the device had a scanner that would "download" memories, temporarily suppressing them in the brain. Then using the memories, as well as sophisticated A.I., the environment around the memories would be recreated, with any missing details filled with plausible data and the person wearing the headset would soon be experiencing the memory, as if for the first time.

Things could vary a little from how they originally played out, but after all was said and done, the original memories were unsuppressed, and person could remember both sets of events happening to them.

It scared her a little, especially with the technology so early in development, but her husband seemed happier than he had been in weeks.

Finally, he came down from the mountain, and graced her with his presence.

"Elizabeth," he said. "This new memory-reliving headset is incredible, you have to try it out!"

"I don't know," she said. "I'm a little nervous about anything that's going to zap my brain..."

"Oh, don't worry about that!" he said. "I've used it dozens of times now, and it's worked every time!"

"Well, I guess it might be okay to use then," she said. "But what memory should I relive?"

"Well," Phillip said, smiling. "Do you remember the first night we met?"

Elizabeth blushed. She did remember it. She had been a college freshmen, free from her overbearing parents control for the first time, and doing a little bit too much of everything as she slowly learned her limits. A little too much drinking, a little too much skipping class, a little too much casual sex, a little too much experimenting with new drugs. She had had so much fun with her new found freedom, but cold, hard reality had eventually caught up to her, and she had found herself on academic probation due to her horrible grades. She had quickly cleaned up her act, and by sophomore year she had sobered up, straightened out, and gotten her life back on track. She did regret the way things had gone a little bit, and sometimes wished that she had learned a few lessons before they had ended up costing her parents money, and herself time, but she had experienced enough debauchery to last a lifetime, and she was thankful that she could always look back on that time with a combination of cringe and nostalgia.

Now she was a serious-minded career woman, and most people would be surprised to learn that she had once had a life of such excess.

Just about the only thing she didn't ever regret from that time is meeting Phillip.

"Meet" might be too tame of a word. The first time she had met him, he had quoted some of her favorite lyrics, and the two of them had gotten talking about their favorite bands. One thing had led to another, and she had woken up with him. She didn't really remember how things had gotten to that point - Phillip was a little nerdy compared to her usual one-night stand around that time, but they had slowly become friends, then friends with benefits, and finally boyfriend and girlfriend, before marrying after the two of them graduated.

He had been there for her through all of her growth, and hadn't judged her as a party girl, nor been disappointed when she had become much more prudish, introverted and sober after she had gotten the partying out of her system.

She wasn't eager to relive another one of those raucous parties - even the sound systems at weddings tended to give her headaches these days, and her idea of a good time was sitting next to her husband as the two of them read books, or working on two separate laptops in the same room as one another.

The one saving grace for her was that it would only be virtual.

"Okay," Elizabeth said. "I think I know what you're going to suggest. And I'm in. I want to relive the night we first met one another, the first time we ever had sex."

It was actually kind of romantic, the idea of resparking that old flame - getting back to the passion at the start of their relationship.

"I actually have two headsets," Phillip said. "So, it won't just be a computer-generated simulation of me based on your memories, you'll be able to interact with the real me."

Elizabeth smiled at her husband, and hugged him. He grasped her tightly. This was where she felt safest in the world, right here, in her husbands arms.

"Let's do it, babe," she said.

Phillip nodded, and led her downstairs. She saw the device she had only seen in passing up until now. It definitely looked like a device in alpha testing, what with all of the cables coming out of it, and the random chips and circuit boards clearly visible. But her husband had been fine until now...

Phillip started entering the parameters, and asked her to sit down.

The sound the machine made when he put the first headset on her head made her jump. He sat down, and soon put on a head set of his own.

Elizabeth looked around. She was in some sort of VR lobby, and she started playing around with the controls while she watched the avatar of her husband tinker with some settings inside the game.

Elizabeth was surprised that she could smell the air around her, feel the floor of the lobby beneath her, and it all felt so real. She never new such things were possible.

Phillip looked at her, and gave her a thumbs up.

"All the settings should be right. It's going to scan our memories up to the night we first met, and then we'll both be back there relieving that night."

Elizabeth nodded. She was a little nervous, but she also loved the idea of meeting her husband again, as if for the first time. It was just such a magical moment!

Phillip pressed a button on the virtual menu in front of him.

"Alright, the scan should be starting now, as the scan continues, you should find yourself forgetting more and more."

Elizabeth blinked at her husband Phillip. Her was starting to slowly feel more and more lightheaded. She suddenly forgot what he had just said. She looked around the room. She saw her husband there, but she couldn't remember how they had gotten here. She jumped as a progress bar appeared in front of her eyes.

"What the heck is that?" she said.

It said 5%, and she could feel her head getting more and more fuzzy. 6%, 7%, 8% - how was there a progress bar there, in real life? What was it measuring the progress of?

She looked around and saw her fiance, Phillip there. It reassured her a little, although she had no idea where she was and what the strange progress bar in the air in front of her was supposed to mean. She smiled at Phillip. As long as he was here, she wasn't worried. There was no way he would let anything bad ever happen to her!

20%, 21%, 22%. Elizabeth just watched the numbers going up, feeling more and more like something might be wrong. Like... she was forgetting something. Something important. She looked over at her boyfriend, Phillip. She smiled. They had been officially dating for a little over a year, but even before that they had pretty much been a couple. They had just identified as "friends with benefits", though their friends had all seen right through that - seen the way they cared about each other, did little things for each other, loved each other.

40%, 41%, 42%. Elizabeth frowned at Phillip. Was he here for sex again? Why hadn't they arranged a more hospitable hook up spot? At least it was better than the time they had gotten caught by a cop while having sex at a part at night. That had been Phillip's idea, and she felt so stupid for going along with it - but at least the cop had been nice about the whole thing. Elizabeth didn't know what she thought about Phillip. She really, really cared for him, but they had agreed that if either of them fell in love they should call the whole friends-with-benefits thing off - a rule she had insisted on, and he had reluctantly agreed to. She felt so confused - she couldn't be in love with him, right? That would mean their relationship would be over, and she didn't want it to end just yet!

64%, 65%, 66%. Lizzy gave a soft smile at her friend Phillip. He had been a big support as she had gotten her life on track after being put on academic probation. She knew that he could never really forget that their first encounter ended in sex, and she was seriously considering using him as a friend with benefit. Having casual sex with random strangers was losing its luster, and she thought a friend like Phillip would actually care about her, and respect her boundaries if given the opportunity.

78%, 79%, 80%. Fuck. Lizzy had failed all of her classes. Maybe she could reach out to that one nerdy guy from the party. He seemed to have his shit together, and he might be willing to study with her or something?

97%, 98%, 99%. Lizzy saw the guy in the strange room, and recognized him as the one she had had a one night stand with the other day. Was his name Felix, or Phillip or something?

100%. Suddenly, everything went dark, and Lizzy was at a party like many others she had been to. She smiled. She could feel the music in her chest, and the alcohol flowing through her veins. She stumbled a little bit, and wondered if maybe she should cut herself off?

As if!

Lizzy giggled. She couldn't believe that her parents had made her miss out on awesome parties like this growing up! But now she was free, and what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them!

She walked back to the jello shots, and grabbed two more. She started walking, and bumped into a cute, kinda nerdy looking guy, who spilled his punch all over her skimpy shirt.

"Oh, shoot," he said. "I'm so sorry!"

Lizzy looked down, and laughed. She had done much worse when she had had a little too much to drink.

"Don't worry about it," she said. "I'll look better this way anyways." She took off her shirt, revealing her pink bra and tied the shirt off at her waist.

The guy did a double take at a girl undressing in front of him, but she didn't even care about the scandalous situation. She was prepared to move on, when he started humming a familiar tune.

"Wait, what're you humming?" she said.

"Oh," he looked a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I didn't even realize I was humming. It's a Blondie Diamond song. She has a bit where she says, '♩Punch on my clothes, I don't care, / ♩I'll change into something else, I'm living for the moment', and I was just reminded of it..."

Lizzy smiled at the guy. He was kind of cute when he was embarrassed

"I fucking love Blondie Diamond!" she said.

"No way," he said. "She's been my favorite since middle school."

"We have to talk more later in the party," Lizzy said. "But I think I can hear someone opening a keg upstairs. I'm Lizzy, by the way," she said, extending her hand.

"Uh, Phillip," he said, shaking it. "And yeah, we should totally meet up again."

Neither of the two of them could remember it right now, but in the original way things played out, Lizzy and Phillip would indeed meet up and talk about their favorite music for hours. It would be the start of a beautiful friendship, that would lead into a beautiful romance.

But outside of their house, a storm started to brew. The weather man had only said there was a 5% chance of rain, but rain began to beat down, and thunder started to rumble the sky, as lightning arced here and there every few seconds. And one of those bolts of lightning happened to hit the power line for Phillip and Elizabeth's block.

Suddenly, everything went dark in front of Lizzy, and she had the sensation of being a floating entity with no senses. And then, she slowly became aware of something on her face and a chair beneath her. She groped around in the dark, and pulled off the headset.

She looked around, and saw that she was in a room that looked like a lot of guys would hang out here. There was a mini fridge, sports memorabilia on the walls, and various tech toys out and about, including the one she had just taken off - a VR headset of some kind?

It was so weird, she had really felt like she was at a party just now, drunk off her ass, but now she was in a strange basement, with no idea how she had gotten here.

She looked over, and saw a man sitting on a chair next to her. He looked strangely familiar, but she decided not to stay and check on him. When he groaned and looked like he was rousing, she slipped out of her seat, and quietly slipped up the stairs.

She found herself in a strange house in the dark. It was kind of eerie without any light, but she didn't recognize it, so she decided to get out of there. She could hear rain pattering outside. Well, she didn't mind a little rain. She walked out into the night, and started walking. She didn't recognize the neighborhood she was in.

She kept walking aimlessly in the dark, rain slowly wetting more and more of her clothing and making her shiver.

Then she saw a street sign.

"Amherst Street?" she read aloud.

Now she knew where she was! She was only a few blocks from campus. All she had to do was turn here, and she'd be right at Greek row!

She weighed her options. Lizzy was still very disoriented, but she decided she would try it out. There was usually a part in one of the frats.

She walked down the street, and was happy to see the lights in the buildings around her blink slowly on. That was good, she was worried the power outage would last forever!

She walked up to the Delta Iota Phi frat house, and was pleased to hear cheering at the lights returning. She smiled, she had arrived just in time.

Lizzy walked up to the door, and slipped inside. Nobody seemed to care that one more freshman had wandered into the building.

Her first order of business was clear: secure drinks. She was *way* too sober. Everyone else had probably been partying for some time now given the atmosphere, and the people stumbling around. Luckily this was easily accomplished. She walked over to a punch table, and poured herself a cup, which she wrote her name on in Sharpie. As soon as the drink passed her lips, she knew it was strong punch with barely any fruit juice in it at all. That was perfect for her purposes. She played catch up with a few large swigs and was soon feeling a bit tipsy.

There was only one problem left: she was now very wet from the rain.

"Hey, there," a big beefy looking guy said, walking up to her. "Your clothes are soaked! I've got some spare clothes upstairs if you want."

Lizzy smiled at the guy. He was definitely her type. Probably a football player or something. There was just one problem, she wasn't nearly drunk enough yet.

She twirled her hair, and said, "You really need to work on your pick up lines, you can't just start by inviting a strange girl to your room."

The football player looked a little taken aback, "Oh, I didn't mean it like that, uh, unless you want to, that is?"

Lizzy giggled. She downed the rest of her punch. She was going to do this. Why not?

"Why don't we start with the clothes," she said, brushing his arm lightly.

"Yeah, of course!" he said stiffly.

He lead Lizzy upstairs, and showed her to his closet.

"It probably won't be a great fit," he said, "but feel free to borrow whatever you want."

Lizzy loved the "boyfriend" look, even if she was a little too free-spirited to have a boyfriend.

The football player left the room to give her privacy, and Lizzy stripped down to just her bra and panties. She took too long trying to decide what to borrow, however, and the football player popped his head in, and then looked embarassed.

"I'm sorry!" he said. "I was sure that you'd be done getting dressed by now."

Lizzy smiled. He reminded her so much of the nerdy guy from her dream earlier today, though he was much more handsome. Maybe it was a prophetic dream?

He was about to duck out, when Lizzy grabbed his hand, and pulled him into the bedroom.

"You like what you see?" she said.

She was feeling nice and buzzed, maybe even a little beyond buzzed, and she felt so sexy standing before the boy.

"Sure!" he said, blushing.

Lizzy smiled, and lifted up her arms, showing off her chest. The football player leaned forward, and ran his hands over them, caressing her breasts.

Yes, it felt so good. Lizzy was in her element now. She giggled, and kissed him on the neck. He moaned softly.

She unbuttoned his shirt, and dragged it off of him. He was wearing a tight tee beneath, and she snaked her hands underneath, and groped his stomach. He pushed her back against the bed, and began kissing her collarbone. Lizzy couldn't believe how good her life was at this moment.

The football player pushed her back onto the bed, and climbed on top of her, and she wrapped her legs around him.

"Oh god, yes!" she exclaimed, as he entered her.

This was definitely her kind of party.

This was clearly not his first rodeo, which was just fine by her, since it wasn't her first rodeo either. He worked her body like a pro, and she kept him grunting for what felt like an amazing hour. When he finally let out a final grunt and pumped her full of his cum, her body was wracked by an incredible orgasm.

She lay there panting, still connected to him, when he rolled off of her.

"Wow," she gasped. "That was, wow."

The football player grinned. "Yeah, well, I'm not exactly a virgin, but you're pretty impressive yourself!"

Lizzy laughed, and sat up.

"You do booty calls?" he asked.

She smiled. "I've been known to from time to time."

He shrugged. "Well, I'll take whatever you're willing to give me."

Lizzy nodded. "I'm glad to hear that."

The football player stood up, and walked over to his dresser. They exchanged numbers and parted ways.

What that football player didn't know is that Lizzy wasn't done for the night by far. No, she could easily get through three guys most nights she was really partying. She pulled on the clothes he lent her, tied them off to look sexier, and and admired herself in the mirror.

She didn't exactly look 18. She looked... older, sexier - if she did say so herself. She smiled, guys were going to love her new look!

She walked downstairs, looking for her next target.

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Back at the house, Phillip was completely unconscious. He hadn't fared quite as well as Elizabeth - when the lightning bolt had hit, a bit of it had gone through him, knocking him out cold, but luckily it hadn't done much more than that. When the power came back on, the device restarted, and Phillip blinked groggily and looked around, as he found himself at a party.

"Oh, of course!" he said. "I've got to find that girl!"

He ran around the party, trying to find her, but she was no where to be seen. He sighed, and decided to stay in a corner, drinking from a red solo cup, and hoping she would walk by. She never did. It was as if she disappeared from the world completely.

Figures.

What were the odds a girl like that would be interested in a nerdy guy like him anyways?

He stayed lonely and miserable at the party for a time, until he decided to go home. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he became conscious of a head set on his face. And a bunch of memories flooded into his head.

He felt strange. He knew that what had just happened wasn't how things had played out - he hadn't gone home from that party alone. He had hit it off with Lizzy, and eventually married her. He was interested to ask her why she had left the party when they were reliving it just now.

But when he pulled his headset off, he found himself completely alone.

He was very disoriented.

Had the new events changed history or something? He tried to tell himself that was ridiculous, but he couldn't find Elizabeth anywhere! It was like she had vanished from the house entirely.

He checked the garage, and all the cars were there.

He tried calling her, but she didn't answer her phone. He started to panic. Where could his wife be?

There was no way the device could have changed the time line - he had pictures of the two of them on his phone, but Elizabeth was no where to be found!

He went to sleep that night, worried sick about what might have happened to his wife.

He ended up searching two weeks, before he met someone who said they had seen a college girl matching his wife's description at a house party a few days ago. He started scouring the frat houses, and managed to walk in on his wife in bed with one of the frat guys.

She had no idea why this strange man dragged her off, and took her into his car. If she had been less drunk, she might have worried about being kidnapped, but the thought didn't even occur to her as he carried her, and stuffed her into the passenger seat and drove her to his house.

The next morning, when she had sobered up and had been offered coffee, he explained that she had been his wife, but something had gone wrong with a machine and now she had forgotten all about it.

As if!

She was pretty sure he was crazy, but he had said that she could crash with him, and the offer was very tempting. Somehow, someone else had moved into her dorm room, and the college had told her that no currently enrolled students with her name existed. It was like she wasn't enrolled in college at the moment at all!

That hadn't slowed her down though. Freed of even the responsibility of school, she had spent the last two weeks crashing every party she could, and she had had an amazing time. She had been couch surfing with new guys she had met, and was loving her freedom.

But the strange man who had kidnapped (?) her insisted she try out some dumb VR thing he had. She put it on, but nothing happened. The device just said "Error Detected - Unable to Recover from Error Automatically. Contact PlasmaTech Support to Resolve."

Phillip had looked so crestfallen when Lizzy told him that. He knew he was going to be stuck with the 18-year old party girl version of his wife for the foreseeable future. He did wonder if she remembered him on some level, though. She seemed surprisingly agreeable to the idea of crashing on his couch, and didn't seem worried about his seeming kidnapping of her.

However, if she did remember anything about him, it didn't extend to their wedding vows. Lizzy went out every night to party, while Phillip spent hours on the help line with PlasmaTech begging them to fix his wife's memories.

How long would he have to endure in the knowledge that his wife was out there every night in skimpy outfits, getting drunk and sleeping with whatever guys crossed her path? How long would he have to imagine another football player plowing his wife.

He hoped PlasmaTech would fix their shit soon!