Chapter #16Friends in Enemies by: rugal b.   What the actual fuck is going on here? You, Jenny and Chelsea have all swapped bodies but while you ended up in Jenny's body and have all of her mental stuff (it's what's stopping you from completely freaking out; Jenny is rather tough-minded), Jenny doesn't have Chelsea's despite being inside her body? That doesn't make any sense though. Why would you have everything associated with your new body but not her? Perhaps she means Chelsea's personality and not her memories.
"Do you remember why Chelsea was there?" you ask her because when you think about it, it's really odd that she was.
But the girl who looks like Chelsea Cooper—and it might be easier to just think of her as Chelsea—shakes her head, her long golden hair rustling around as she does. "No, I don't know anything," she says. There's a chime from the purse she's carrying and she reaches in to pull out a phone. "It's from Gloria," she says as she looks at the notification, "asking which party we're going to, Alexis' or Dominique's. Shit, I can't go to any party. I wouldn't want to anyway but like this..."
"Well, tell her that you can't. Say you're not feeling good or something."
She swipes the phone so she can open it and type a response but pauses. Then gets a very frustrated look on her face. "What's wrong?" you ask.
"I don't know Chelsea's passcode," she grumbles. "It won't let me open her phone up to respond without it. I can only see whatever's on the lock screen."
"Just ignore it then, they'll get the hint," you tell her. "I guess just go home. We can try and talk later and see if we can't figure out—"
"I don't know where she lives," she states before realization sets in. She digs through the purse and pulls out a wallet, opens it and pulls out a driver's license. "Okay, fine, I've got her address here at least. But I don't know about going home."
"Why not?"
"Her family, duh! I wouldn't be able to act like Chelsea around them!"
That's true. You guess that it's probably not a good idea to leave her alone and, quite frankly, you don't want to be left alone either. "Let's go somewhere then. Starbucks or somewhere like that where we can hang out for a bit," you tell her.
"Yeah... wait, no," she responds. "Because I could get spotted while I'm out and that'd be bad too. Especially if I'm ignoring everyone's messages and then try to claim I wasn't feeling good." She hangs her head and crosses her arms under (ample) chest in frustration before seemingly giving up. "Fuck it, I'll just go back to Chelsea's but I want you to come with me."
"Me? Why?" you ask.
"Just for a little bit until I feel like I'm good."
"But I've... you've never been out to Chelsea's! You're not her friend or anything!" you protest.
"Does it really fucking matter right now?" she retorts.
You admit that it doesn't and so you agree to go back with her. You're a bit relieved to know that Jenny, at least, has seen Chelsea's car enough to know what it looks like such that you're able to help her find it once the parking lot clears out a bit. From there you get in Jenny's own compact and follow her out to her new home.
* * * * *
Chelsea's house is both what you'd expect and not what you'd expect going by the two personalities which now occupy your head. The part of you that's Will Prescott is almost a bit disappointed as while it's certainly nice, it also doesn't look terribly nicer than where you already live. On the other hand, the part of you that's Jenny Ashton is not at all surprised that someone like Chelsea Cooper would live in such a cookie cutter suburban home.
That Jenny portion also gives you a weird feeling as the two of you walk up to the door, knowing that you're going into the home of someone "you" otherwise hate. But then you can only imagine how the real Jenny must be feeling about all of this.
"Chelsea? Is that you, dear?" calls out a voice. A woman comes out of the kitchen and you have to admit she's very pretty. Older but kept well with bottle blonde hair and a bright smile. It's like a preview of Chelsea fifteen years in the future. Her gaze quickly turns from her apparent daughter to you. "Well hello! And who's this?" she asks.
"This is, uh," Chelsea sputters.
"I'm Jenny," you jump in. "I'm, uh, Yumi's friend."
"Oh, Yumi!" Mrs. Cooper exclaims as her eyes light up. "Oh she is just a lovely girl, isn't she? How is she?"
"She's fine, uh, Mom," Chelsea states as she grabs your wrist. "We've got some stuff related to the squad we need to talk about but Yumi's busy so Jenny's acting as her stand-in."
With that, she drags you upstairs because she assumes that's likely where the bedrooms are. It takes a little bit of looking around before she finds a door open just enough that she's able to peak in and, concluding that it's Chelsea's room, heads in.
"Okay," she says as she shuts the door behind the both of you. "What the fuck is going on?"
"What do you mean what's going on?" you ask. "The three of us swapped bodies somehow, duh!"
"No, I know that! I get that!" she squeaks. "But what I mean is how?"
"Do you think I know that?" you reply. "Because if I did I'd fucking tell you!"
She paces around for a moment before, with a frustrated grunt, she throws herself onto the bed. "You said you had mine, right? My memories, I mean," she says as she lies on her back staring up at the ceiling.
"I think so," you answer as you pull out the chair from a desk where a laptop and other things sit. "When I woke up it took me a minute to realize I was me instead of you and I was replaying what had happened from your point of view."
She doesn't say anything and there's a tense, uneasy quiet that fills the room for a moment. "Okay," she finally says, "then let me ask you some stuff."
Then she does, asking you stuff about herself. Old memories and things like that. What she thinks about various names she brings up. You find the answers come very quickly and easily, seeming to be natural parts of you as if they were your own memories and opinions. After a few minutes of this she says she's had enough. She sits up but draws herself inwards, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her head on her knees.
"I can't remember anything about Chelsea," she says. "If I'm stuck like this, how the hell am I going to be her if I can't think like her the way you can with... with..."
"Look it's going to be fine. Maybe," you say trying to reassure her. "Chelsea's not any better off either."
"Yeah, I guess we're all in the same boat, huh?" she says. "Not you, though."
"I got switched too," you counter. "And hell if I know when, or even if, I'll switch back."
Chelsea is quiet again and then shifts her head such that her face is buried in her knees. "Fuck," she says in a muffled voice. "You mean I'm going to have to be stuck like this for the rest of my life?"
* * * * *
You stay with the new Chelsea for another hour or so before finally deciding that you need to get home... your new home you have to remind yourself. Temporary new home, you hope. You're so exhausted by the day's events that you don't even do much when you do arrive at Jenny's except go up to her room for a nap. Then you wake up, come down for dinner with her parents, head back up and do some browsing on her phone before turning in early.
The morning isn't all that different because you can't get over how surreal it all is. You're waking up in a different house, in a different body... a girl's body at that! And you want to check it out because Jenny is certainly not an unattractive girl. But you can't bring yourself to because none of it feels real. So you do nothing more than eat breakfast and hang out in her room and it's not until mid-morning when you're really thrown for a loop.
Your phone goes off and its a text from an unknown number. its me! its jenny! it reads, i've got her memories now!
You're about to respond back when your phone rings and you're taken aback by the name: it's Will.
"Is that you? The guy whose body I'm stuck in?" comes his voice when you answer.
"Yeah, it's me," you answer. "Um, about yesterday..."
"Yeah, I want to talk about it. In person. Can we meet up for somewhere? The sooner the better," he asks.
"Sure," you agree but an idea hits and you tell him to hold on.
You pull your phone away from your ear and go to your texts. You send message to Chelsea telling her that "Will" contacted you and wants to meet up in person and that you think she should be there too. She's quick to get back to you saying that's fine.
"Okay," you start, "Jenny's coming too."
"Jenny is—"
"Is that fine? I think we should all be together for this."
There's some grumbling on the other end before he speaks. "Okay, sure, whatever. Let's meet up at Sunshine, you know, out by—"
"I know where it is," you cut him off. "Why there?"
"It's out of the way and this early it's only gonna be old farts," he explains. "There's less chance of us being spotted together since it'd be weird to see the three of us hanging out, right? Anyway, be out there in... half an hour?"
The line goes dead before you can say anything else so you shoot a text to Chelsea telling her that the real Chelsea wants to meet up at the Sunshine Diner in half an hour. She agrees to be there. You spend some time getting ready, though not a lot because Jenny isn't one to dress up or worry much about her hair and whatnot, and then you're out the front door, in the driver's seat of Jenny's car and pulling out of the driveway. You have the following choice: 1. Continue |
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