“This must be pretty hard for you to understand, huh?” George asked, obviously having noticed the slight smile on Marty’s face.
“No, George,” Marty replied sincerely. “It’s not that hard at all.”
It was a breakthrough moment. Something in his father’s vulnerability and desire to create touched Marty; for
the first time in a long time, he found himself not only liking the man but understanding some of his anxieties. Suddenly he wanted to help George McFly not only because it would be beneficial to himself but to George as well.
“Listen, George,” he said. “You know that girl I introduced you to—”
“Lorraine.”
“Yeah. She really likes you.”
George shook his head.
“It’s true,” Marty persisted. Doc Brown added his nod as well.
“I don’t believe it. She didn’t even look at me. I felt invisible.”
As they were discussing her, Lorraine and some girl friends walked into the cafeteria. She did not see either of the young men.
George spotted her first. After a brief expression of adulation, his face melted into a mask of terror. He lifted the writing tablet above the lower part of his face as if he wanted to hide.
“I’m telling you she likes you,” Marty continued. “Now why would I say that if it wasn’t true?”
“To embarrass me,” George replied quickly. “Like Biff when he plays tricks on me or those guys who put ‘kick me’ signs on my back.”
“Well, I’m different,” Marty said. “I’m the one who saved your life, remember? Would Biff or those other guys have jumped in front of a car for you?”
George shook his head, partially convinced that Marty was on the level. Nevertheless, years of being used as a punching bag had taught him to be super-cautious. This guy Marty acted sincere enough, but he was decidedly a strange type. He seemed to know a lot more than most kids his age…He also seemed to show up out of nowhere, wearing strange clothes (like a sinister visitor from out of space who got his time periods mixed up, George thought). And why was he hanging around with the man some people derided as the “village idiot”? No, he thought warily, it would not be a good idea to trust this newfound friend completely.
“I appreciate your saving my life,” he said finally. “But that doesn’t mean you’re right about Lorraine. You saw yourself how she looked right through me.”
“Yeah,” Marty nodded. There was, after all, no sense trying to deny the obvious. “But she’s shy…”
“She overcompensates,” Doc Brown added.
“She’s very shy,” Marty continued. ‘That’s why she asked me to come over here and tell you she’d like nothing better than to go with you to the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance.”
“Really?” George asked.
“Yep. All you gotta do is go right over there and ask her.”
“Now? Right here, in the cafeteria?”
“No time like the present.”
“But she’s with friends. There are lots of other people around! What if she bursts out laughing? Or just says no? I’d hate to be rejected in front of all those…”
He trailed off, a nervous mess.
“George, I’m telling you, if you don’t ask Lorraine to the dance, you’re gonna regret it for the rest of your life…and I’m gonna regret it for the rest of mine.”
“Why you?” George asked.
“Uh…Let’s just say I have a rooting interest in you and Lorraine getting together.”
“You mean, like a bet?”