Play 276: Please Believe Me

CHARACTERS
AIDAN, 17
NOAH, 17

NOAH
What?

(Beat.)

AIDAN
Nevermind.

NOAH
Tell me.

AIDAN
You wouldn’t understand.

NOAH
Why not?

AIDAN
You’d think I was crazy.

NOAH
I’m sure I wouldn’t.

AIDAN
You would.

(Beat.)

NOAH
Just tell me.

(Beat.)

AIDAN
Okay.

(Beat.)

AIDAN
I think I went backwards in time.

(Noah laughs.)

AIDAN
I’m not joking.

(Beat.)

NOAH
You’re serious, aren’t you?

AIDAN
Completely.

(Beat.)

NOAH
And why do you think you went back in time?

AIDAN
It was a year from now, or close to it. I went to sleep one night, and I woke up here.

(Beat.)

You don’t believe me, do you?

NOAH
Well…

AIDAN
It’s okay, I’m not offended. I wouldn’t believe you if you told me the same thing.

(Pause.)

NOAH
How long have you been back here?

AIDAN
About a month.

NOAH
You told anyone else?

AIDAN
No.

(Pause.)

NOAH
Why did you tell me?

AIDAN
I had to tell someone.

(Beat.)

You think I’m crazy, don’t you?

(Beat.)

NOAH
I don’t know.

AIDAN
Even I can’t help but thinking I might be. I mean, you can’t just wake up a year in the past, right?

NOAH
It doesn’t really make sense.

AIDAN
It doesn’t.

NOAH
Maybe you should get some help.

AIDAN
Maybe.

(Beat.)

But some other weird stuff’s been going on.

NOAH
Like?

AIDAN
I know what’s going to happen.

(Beat.)

NOAH
You know the future?

AIDAN
I still have all the memories from a year from now. And things I remember having happened keep happening.

(Pause.)

NOAH
Are you sure you’re not just imagining it?

AIDAN
Completely.

NOAH
It might just be a coincidence.

AIDAN
It’s happened too many times. And some of the things I remembered that are very specific have happened exactly the same way.

(Pause.)

NOAH
You’ve been under a lot of stress lately…

AIDAN
I’m not imagining all of this. (beat.) I can’t be.

NOAH
It’s possible.

AIDAN
You don’t understand, this isn’t just some crazy delusion.

NOAH
How do you know?

AIDAN
I’ll tell you what’s going to happen.

NOAH
Why?

AIDAN
So when it happens you’ll see I’m not insane.

(Pause.)

NOAH
You should go see a psychiatrist or something.

(Pause.)

AIDAN
Nevermind.

NOAH
What?

AIDAN
Just forget I told you.

NOAH
I can’t just forget something like that.

AIDAN
Try.

(Beat.)

NOAH
Aidan, you really should get looked at—

AIDAN
I knew it was a bad idea to tell you.

NOAH
I’m just trying to help.

AIDAN
I know.

(Beat.)

You can’t tell anyone about this.

NOAH
I won’t if you get checked out.

AIDAN
(Begging)
Please.

(Beat.)

NOAH
Fine.

AIDAN
Thank you.

NOAH
For now at least.

AIDAN
Okay.

(Beat.)

I’ll show you.

NOAH
What?

AIDAN
I’ll prove it to you that I’m right.

(Beat.)

NOAH
Okay.

(Blackout.)