“You were acting out of place at school,” Jimmy explains. “I noticed you moved towards the bus stop instead of your home, so I followed you.”
“But I didn’t see you inside.”
“I took the next one. Could’ve missed you, but I luckily saw you stepping out of Save-Mart, so I followed you into Harknell’s.”
“Davey?” Claire questions. “How the hell did you fuck up this badly?”
“I didn’t notice! I mean, he skipped class to talk to me--”
“Hey! I thought you weren’t gonna rat me out!”
“After what you did?” Claire states in your defense, strangely enough. “You’re lucky he didn’t skin you alive. Anyways, what happened?”
“He noticed I was working on a computer, so I said I helped Quentin hack in.”
“Yeah, he mentioned someone was teaching him how to browse the dark web and I thought ‘cool, new ways to get porn’!”
“His mind is all into porn,” you tell Barbara while looking at ‘Ashley’.
“He should focus on studying,” your mother says, already knowing this side of your friend. “Pranks aren’t going to feed him in the future.”
“I agree,” your replacement mother timidly adds.
“You should call his mother,” the former continues, and you notice Jimmy freezing. “By the way, Marie, what’s her name? You mentioned you knew a Denise and a Julia.”
“Uh, you’re gonna tell Mom about...” He points at his current condition, wearing your replacement. “...this?”
“Let's sort this out first,” you suggest.
“Yeah, let’s. What’s that about not calling your mom like that except outside? And who’s that woman?”
You look at your mother, Barbara and Claire. “He knows about the skins, so I figured there’s no point hiding him anything.”
“Next time,” Claire warns, though it sounds like a taunt, “be more careful about where you leave your stuff.” She looks at your mother, cocking her head. “Should we tell him, Ashley?”
“Barbie, you won’t mind if we talk to him in private?”
As Jimmy shakes his head, your replacement mother replies with a bored face. “Yeah, whatever. If this helps us with our situation, better.”
“You don’t?” Your mother kisses her new sister on the cheek, smiling. “Thank you, Sissie!” Then, as if possessed, her mood hardens. “David, to your room. Claire, follow me.”
“Which David?”
“Both of you,” she barks. You lead everyone into your room, but your mother moves towards Tina’s.
“What’s all that about?” Jimmy asks you.
“She’s gonna tell her other sister Cassandra to move away while we talk.” Claire approaches your ear, whispering. “You think she’s gonna tell Jimmy about--?”
“I dunno...”
“Hey, what’s that?” You notice Jimmy’s pointing at the suit bags.
“After we finish the conversation,” your mother says, appearing at the doorframe as you notice Cassandra moving away. She calls you, rather incensed. “I need to ask you something.”
As you leave, she leads you to her room, closing the door. There, you notice her harsh look softens. “What happened back there, Davey?”
“I was checking on clothes and I figured I could go to the library as Quentin, so I planned to find some bag to store my replacement, but I forgot to buy some shoes and Quentin has a larger shoe size, so--”
“You stepped outside as him?”
“How would I check on the clothes and buy the shoes otherwise?”
“And what did you do with the skin?”
“I hid it in the drawer I was using, behind my clothes and my bookbag and the Save-Mart bag with the briefs I bought for him, but apparently the employee there mixed up the booths and didn’t notice Jimmy slipping in.”
“What do you mean ‘mixed’, Davey?”
“I told the employee I left my used clothes inside the drawer and that she should keep an eye on them.”
“I see... So you did try to keep everything under wraps.”
“Exactly. And because I took a while finding good shoes, Jimmy had all the time to slip inside my skin.”
“I get it, I get it...” She takes a deep breath, looking beyond you and towards your room. “One more thing. Are we going to pretend I’m Ashley in front of him, or should we tell him--?”
“Do whatever you want, Mom. Remember we’re playing your ‘disappearance’ as a thing Tessa did, but with Barbara knowing about the green pen, she might suspect foul play if she starts connecting the dots.”
“Then I’ll be Ashley for him. You’ll have to guide Barbie to act as me when dealing with Julia, then.” Having said that, she steps away, and as you follow him, she naturally adopts her new identity with ease. “Sorry about that – I needed a few more details. My name’s Ashley – my sisters and I are hiding here while we sort out a couple things with David and Claire’s help.”
“I see.” Your friend grabs your mother’s extended hand, and you notice it’s more awkward for him than for her. “James Wilson. I’ve been David’s friend since elementary.”
“Yeah, I know. I asked him why he brought you here and he said you’re his friend, so we agreed to tell you about our situation.”
“What situation?”
“It’s a long story involving our families. I feel responsible for what I did to his mother, so I’m helping them in exchange...”
--
As your mother tells the story of how she made Paul cheat on “Marie” and everything about Tessa and her family, you notice how well she has adapted to be Ashley. The way she speaks, her body language, even her attitude has fully changed. You’re not seeing a jaded mother in her forties, but a shaken yet resolute woman in her thirties that has basically adopted you.
You notice Jimmy’s absorbed by the tale of how you made a daring rescue of the other Wright women after learning about Quentin’s deal with Tessa, but even that doesn’t make his eyes step away from Ashley’s breasts. You know he’ll comment about her once you’ve finished talking, and all you hope is that he doesn’t make any indiscreet comment.
“...and that’s why David is wearing that guy,” she finishes as she points at you. “We’re trying to see who’s in league with my fake mother in order to get some help.”
“Whoa. That sounds like a Hollywood movie!”
“That’s all you can think about?” You’re surprised by Claire – she's a pretty good actor, summoning tears on command. “We don’t know what happened to Mom, and all you can think of is ‘awesome, you guys had a cool adventure’!”
You hug your sister instinctively, whispering to her ear. “Sorry about that. Jimmy can be an airhead.”
“You’re lucky I was sentimental back there,” she whispers back. “But he can be an asshole sometimes.”
“Sorry, sorry!” Jimmy gives you and your family the most awkward look. “It’s just that, between the infidelity and the plan to deal with her mom – uh, fake mom – I forgot about yours!”
“But Ashley said--!”
“I guess I’m a good storyteller,” your mother intervenes, silencing your sister. “Perhaps I didn’t stress what David, Claire and Tina are suffering.”
“Where’s Tina, by the way?”
“She’s living with Paul,” your mother replies. “She can’t stand seeing my sister wearing their mother, so she left. She doesn’t know you know, so don’t tell her anything. To be honest, I’m worried about her situation.”
“Why?”
“Ever since she heard the story, she’s gone... psychotic. Just mildly – she thinks I’m her mother, that her mother’s replacing me... It’s heart-breaking.”
“Davey tried to explain that’s not the case,” Claire adds, “but she’s not getting it. She claims we’re all in the plan.”
“And that’s making Barbie feel worse. I asked her to replace Marie while we find some help, and that’s taking a toll on her psyche. I want this to end as soon as possible, and David had this idea to keep track of everyone working in law enforcement, so I agreed to have him wear Quentin.”
“That’s why I’m kinda excited about everything – except about what happened to missus Anderson, of course. Say, how did you end up with a cloned David skin?”
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you about that,” your mother insists, deliberately withholding more information. “All I can say is that it’s tied to how my... ‘mother’ did everything she did.”
“And the bags over there?”
“Those are Davey’s new girls.” Jimmy gives you a knowing, almost flirty look, but Claire smacks him down. “Thing is, the fake Missus Wright started doing clones of other people to sell them as prostitutes or something, and since nobody knew about them--”
“I agreed that David could keep some of them while everything’s sorted out,” your mother finishes the sentence.
“So those are skins of girls?” He steps up, opening one seemingly at random – but unfortunately, the one he shouldn’t have opened, as you see the shock in his eyes. “Whoa! They copied Sonya too?”
“That’s not Sonya,” you clarify. “That’s her cousin, Caitlin. Remember when Tina was in her senior year and we were freshmen? Caitlin was the head cheerleader back then.”
“Is that so?” You see his eyes brighten. “Oh yeah! Dude, I had so many--” He notices your companions and smacks his mouth. “Uh, sorry about that, Miss Wright.”
“It’s alright,” she grins. “Call me ‘Ashley’, by the way. Just not ‘Ash’ or ‘Ashie’, like my sister Cassandra does.”
“It’s so disturbing to hear Davey say such dirty things,” Claire laments. “I mean, at least you don’t care about saying them, unlike him, but--” You smack her, glaring hard. “Hey!”
“Stop it, you two.” (That’s the closest your mother has acted as herself in this entire conversation.) “Anyways, that’s about everything. Will you keep our secret?”
“Uh...” He grins. “Yeah.”
“Good.” Your mother stands up, cocking her head towards Claire. “Come on. I bet those two have a lot to talk about.”
As they leave, you relax a bit, knowing Jimmy knows most of what happened. But perhaps your celebration was too quick, as Jimmy can’t hold it anymore.
“Dude. How can you live with that hot babe in your house? Have you jerked off to her already?”
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