Chapter #23The Preferences of Partners by: rugal b.   You're not sure how long you're like that--it feels like minutes but it's probably only seconds--before your partner begins to squirm and you feel hands grasp your shoulders and push you back. You sit, stunned, as the person who looks like Patrick raises a hand and wipes his mouth with the back of it. "Oh Jesus, Will," he spits out, "what the fuck was that all about!?"
At that you blink and it's like you're coming out of a trance. "Oh crap, I'm sorry Chelsea I just... I don't know what happened!" you exclaim as, red-faced and burning up, you turn away. "Uh, your clothes," you say as you point behind you. "They're on the ground next to you. Just... tell me when you're done."
You sit there in awkward silence for a few minutes as you hear grunts and shuffling. When they stop you turn back, relieved to see him fully clothed. The atmosphere is odd and neither of you say anything for a minute. Finally, though, you break down and are the first to speak.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," you apologize. "It's just... there's been this feeling all afternoon, urging me to do more and seeing, uh, you as you are now, I just--"
But you're interrupted by a laugh from Chelsea. "Oh jeez, you were horny?" she asks with amusement. "Is this the kind of guy that Yumi likes?"
"So what if it is!?" you retort indignantly. "Yes, Yumi likes Patrick Currier, and Cody Schaefer, and there's even a guy from Eastman's basketball team that--"
Chelsea cuts you off once more with an even louder laugh. "I didn't realize she was such a slut!" Chelsea exclaims like it's the funniest thing in the world.
That actually causes you to get incensed and pushing yourself up, you move over to your partner and lean in. "How does that make her a slut?" you challenge.
"Huh?"
"So she likes a few guys, what's slutty about that?"
"I don't know, I was just trying to make a joke, god!" Chelsea complains. "You know, she's just always so uptight that I thought she was, like... that thing where you don't even want to have sex. I was just surprised, what are you getting all mad for?"
"So you don't like any other guys yourself? You don't find other guys besides Gordon attractive?" you continue pressing. Chelsea seems to have no response for that so you decide to leave it there. "Look, I'm sorry I overreacted. But as long as we're talking about who likes who... what does Patrick think about Yumi?"
"What does he think?" Chelsea asks. She pauses and looks as if she's trying to recall something. But the look on her face tells you that something's up. "I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"Like I said, I don't know what he thinks!" she cries. "I'm trying to think about it but nothing's coming!"
"That doesn't make any sense," you tell her, "I know that we copied his brain on the strip."
"I know, duh, I watched you do it! But I don't have his memories or anything!" She frets and fidgets in a way that is so girly it instantly kills whatever bits of Yumi's sex drive you'd been getting. "How am I even supposed to go home or anything? I don't know where he lives!"
"Calm down, it'll be fine!" you insist. "Check your pockets, he's probably got a wallet in one of them, right?" She does pull one out of his back pocket. "Okay and his ID with his address is probably in there, right?"
She opens it and her face lights up. "Yeah, his license is here... oooh!"
With a grin, Chelsea turns the wallet towards you. Behind the clear film is his license with his address: it's for 100 20th Street, a mid-rise building in the rapidly gentrifying downtown area. The bottom floor is composed of a handful of shops while the floors above are expensive luxury condos. It's also the building that houses Arnholm's Books, where you'd first encountered and purchased the book.
"Are you going to go there right away, though?" you ask. "It'd probably be a good idea to hang out somewhere until night and then get to bed early."
"You're not going to stay here with me?" asks Chelsea in return.
"I can't," you say remorsefully. "Yumi's parents are going to want her home for dinner."
That's a bit of a lie, however. The truth is, you're still reeling from what happened earlier and want to get as far away from anyone who looks like Patrick Currier for a little while.
* * * * *
At school the next day, things seem to be back to normal. Chelsea -- or maybe it's her duplicate -- treats you much as she typically does Yumi, mixing indifference and snide comments, which is at least better than the way she unloaded on you yesterday. If nothing else, it seems to have, for the time being, dispelled any idea of you being lured over to Chelsea's side. That doesn't mean talk isn't still about you when lunch rolls around. Jessica pools the two of you, Lin and Jenny together, separate from the boys, and wastes no time jumping into her topic.
"Did you really go on a date with Patrick Currier yesterday?" she asks. You nearly do a spit take. "That's what Eva told me."
"It wasn't a date!" you protest. "We hung out but it was casual, that's it!"
"She said that you said--"
"I was joking, jeez!"
"That's your type?" Jenny asks with what you think is a hint of derision.
"He's pretty cute, though. I wouldn't turn him down," Lin jumps in.
Jenny makes a face. "I guess if you like that douchey preppy look," she mutters.
"Am I interrupting something?" comes a voice. You feel an arm drape over your shoulder and look up to see Patrick. He looks down at you and grins before turning back to the other girls. "Sorry, but I need to borrow Yumi for a bit." He seems to smile specifically at Jenny who winces and then makes a face in return.
"Don't let us stop you," Jessica says as she looks at you with amusement.
"If you kiss, make sure you tell," Lin adds with a chuckle. You lament that she's on the other side of the table and too far away to thwap.
* * * * *
"I don't think Jenny approves of me," says Patrick once the two of you have found a secluded spot. "But you know, that's what makes her so hot. That judgey, don't fuck with me attitude. You know, Patrick's had a thing for her since last year."
"Patrick... wait, Chelsea!?" He grins at you. "So it's working now?"
"Yeah," he answers. "I thought I was getting a little bit last night but when I woke up this morning, it was all there. I knew his parents, his birthday, what girls he fantasizes about when he jerks off... all of it."
"I didn't need to know that," you grumble but something stirs a curiosity within you. "Wait, who does he fantasize about?" you ask. I hope I'm in them, comes the Yumi part of your brain.
"A lot, he's definitely as horny as any boy," he says with a decidedly girlish snicker. "But he's got it bad for Jenny and Danielle."
"Davis?"
"Mhm," he nods. "You know, one of them would probably make a good second mask for you," he says.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm thinking of going after Eva and Jessica first. They seem like the easiest targets," he states. "Danielle and Jenny are friendly with them so, you know, get you under a mask of either of them..."
"And I can undermine them from two spots," you finish her thought.
"Right! Also, wouldn't Danielle and Jenny look nice in a cheerleading uniform?" He asks. "Plus if you were one of them, I could probably date them, you know?"
"Is that who he thinks about? Danielle and Jenny?" you ask with disappointment.
"He thinks a lot about that orchestra trip last year where he got a handjob from Sarah Bhatnagar, too."
"Wait, Sarah!? What!?" Your eyes practically bulge out of your head. Sarah is an Indian-American girl who's part of the orchestra with her younger sister, a freshman. She's always come off as rather reserved and studious and while she's not unattractive, she's no great beauty either.
"Ah, yeah, there was... hmm... a little bit of flirtation between them last year," he explains. "Patrick convinced her to sneak off during the trip and to fool around a little bit. You know, making out and some petting? She just kind of did that on her own though. But nothing came of it. She was kind of awkward about the whole thing, like it's not natural for her."
He pauses for a moment and a look comes over him. "Maybe she'd be good, too. Because now that I'm Patrick," he gestures towards himself, "I want to fuck things up for that bitch Kelsey, too."
"So you want to date Sarah, too?"
"What? No!" he exclaims. "Sarah's parents are big deals though. You know her parents work at the hospital, right? Her mom has, like, some executive position in accounting and her dad is the freakin' director! If you can get a mask of her and I can get a mask of, hmm... Anthony Kirk, maybe, then I could really knock Kelsey on her ass if we hooked them up."
That's probably not a bad idea and you can't say that you wouldn't want to see her taken down a peg or two yourself. But is it all maybe getting a little out of hand? The kind of thing you were trying to caution Chelsea about after she got stuck in Chen's mask? And besides, something inside of you is starting to feel very irritated.
"What about me? About Yumi?" you demand.
"Huh? What about Yumi?"
"Patrick doesn't think about her? Does he not like her or, I don't know, would he not want to be see with her?"
"No, he likes her plenty." He smiles at you hungrily. "Actually, he had a raging hard on when he thought you were taking him up to the loft to, well, you know."
For some reason, you feel relieved at that.
"I mean, if you want to stay as Yumi, too, then that's fine." He grabs your hands in his own and looks at you with a warm expression. It almost makes you forget that it's really Chelsea beneath that face. "I'd totally date you. Don't worry."  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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