A/N: Recently I've really been feeling fics that show the sort of darker side of what happens when the reality of time travel events and such sink in, and this plot bunny has been poking around in my brain for awhile now, so I figure while I'm avoiding doing my English and studying for Euro it would be a fantastic time to begin writing it down. Warning: characters may be a bit ooc but I'll try my best. I also never know what rating to give things, so if anyone thinks I should change it for whatever reason just let me know. I own nothing. - Classi
It was Monday when Marty really began to take notice of the changes.
After the time travel and the almost accident and the heartfelt goodbye, the remainder of Sunday had been more or less lost on Marty. As soon as he'd dropped off Jennifer and returned home he'd gone straight to bed, figuring sleep to be the best course of action in response to the numerous changes that he was sure to discover upon awaking. It wasn't that he was anticipating bad changes, he imagined that most would be changes for the better. But change most often comes with unintended consequences.
The first change he noticed was when his entire family was once again having breakfast together. Linda was still rambling on about her many male pursuers while Dave was questioning whether anyone at the office would notice the miniscule jelly stain on his tie. Lorraine was participating in both conversations while setting more food on the table, and George was scribbling something on a sheet of paper, gnawing on a piece of toast, and occasionally giving input on either of his oldest children's conversations. They greeted him a good morning before sucking him into the ever changing discussion as well, more than once bringing up something that he apparently should've known but didn't. That was one of the bigger problems right off the bat: Marty's memories of the new timeline were still hazy and at times not existent at all.
School was another change. Not only that he now got there via his truck rather than his skateboard, but also that his classes seemed to be harder and grades better. He was almost never tardy, and many people he had never spoken to before greeted him in the hallways, although the majority of these people wore horribly fake smiles. He also noticed more people shying away from him than before, moving to the other side of the hallway to avoid him or giving him dirty looks on their way past.
His relationship with Jennifer was another thing that had changed. They did different things with each other, acted differently together. Jennifer didn't acknowledge time travel anymore than absolutely necessary. She expected Marty to be able to just pick back up right where they left off, despite him having no idea where that was. He didn't feel he could talk to her, and she didn't seem too keen on listening anyways.
As time went on, and Monday turned into Tuesday into a week into multiple weeks, Marty found himself slowly falling behind. He had to study twice as hard to make half the grades his other self made. He didn't recognize many of the inside jokes shared by his family and friends. When with his band, they'd play songs that he had no memory of ever writing, talk about gigs he could've sworn they'd never had. Eventually his teachers began to notice his grades dropping, and rather than try and help just pestered him about needing to study and focus on his school work rather than his social life, which wasn't faring much better. The number of dirty looks he was getting in a day seemed to increase, and the friendly smiles, even the fake ones, began to dwindle, as the gossip started and rumors began to spread. His family noticed the change in him, and in their own misguided ways would try to help, but he couldn't talk to them about what was happening. Partially because he didn't fully understand it himself, partially because it involved time travel, and he wasn't about to go around spilling that secret anytime soon.
The only person Marty could really talk to about anything that was happening was gallivanting through time with a train and a family, and if his slightly dramatic and overdone farewell told Marty anything, it was that the scientist wasn't planning on stopping by or returning any time soon. Marty didn't think it was very like Doc to decide that time travel was dangerous and then go off on a joy ride through time with his family, leaving behind his old friend. Then again, he supposed that Doc might have changed from the Doc he knew just as everyone else seemed to have changed. Maybe that was the kind of person Doc was here, or maybe they had never formed as close a relationship as they had in the other timeline, or maybe it wasn't Doc that had changed, but Marty.
That made sense, if he was going to be completely honest with himself. To him it seemed as if everyone else had changed, but really they were all exactly who they always were, but Marty was different. He wasn't the Marty that they all knew, and they weren't the people he had grown up with. People who would think him insane or joking if he mentioned them being any different. People who noticed something off about him and wanted to help, all because he wasn't him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't manage to blend into his other self's life and be who everyone thought he was.
So when the weeks turned to months, with no sign of Doc, and Marty just barely managing to keep everything together, it was the strangest little thing that sent it all spiraling into chaos.