Chapter #57A Rainbow of Options by: rugal b.   We should talk. Talk talk. Not text.
You send that off to Kelsey and it's only a few minutes before your phone starts lighting up and buzzing. "Yeah?" you casually say as you accept the call.
"It's me," comes Kelsey's voice, "you said we should talk." There's a small moment of silence—maybe she's expecting you to say something—before she talks again. "So what did you want to talk about?"
"Just continuing what we talked about earlier. You know, about you wanting to see me?"
There's a short pause on her end. "I told you I meant Will, not this... this..."
"Asshole, I know," you respond calmly. "And we agreed that this asshole and his asshole friends made Will and Sydney seeing each other an impossibility."
"It's not impossible, Will! You just need to—"
"I need to what?" you challenge her. "Stand up for myself? Allow myself to get harassed by the biggest psychos in school because I don't 'deserve' to be with someone like Sydney?"
"Will, that's not—"
But you're worked up by this point and now you're like a runaway steamroller, barreling through and flattening everything in its path. "I fucking lost everything because of this. Lost my dignity, lost my friends. You're the only goddamn thing I've got left, Sydney, and it don't mean shit because—"
"Will, okay, alright, I get it!" comes the almost desperate response. "Are you mad at me? Are you blaming me for what happened? Do you want to... do you want to break up with me?"
"Do I want to—" you start to say with surprise. "No, hell no I don't wanna break up with you! I just mean that when we were talking earlier, about you wanting to see Will, I thought that we can't see each other as each other; it just ain't gonna work. Too much bullshit. Too many jealous fucks."
"Uh huh."
"Well, I didn't get the chance to say it but I was thinking instead that if Will can't be with Sydney, why not let him be with someone else?"
Again, more silence, before Kelsey finally speaks. "So you mean, like, we get a mask of another girl and then we date with me under the mask, right?"
"Yeah, Will and... whoever."
"Us," she states simply.
"That's what I said."
"No it isn't," she retorts. "I'm not a dim bulb, Will, jeez! I want to date you! Not a pedisequos and definitely not David Kirkham!"
You grunt. "Gonna be hard. Will's got a target on his back as long as he and Sydney are seen as an item."
"Then you tell anyone that asks that you broke up," she says with what sounds like exasperation. "Hell, if anyone asks then Sydney dumped you, okay?"
Well of course, Sydney would dump Will. After all she's on a higher strata than him so it's only natural that her and Will would be a small, weird aberration for her and that she would quickly come to her senses. But something about it still doesn't sit right with you. Maybe because it's putting all of the responsibility onto her and that it could potentially make her look bad.
"I'm not gonna tell 'em that," you state resolutely. "I'll tell 'em... fuck, I dunno. I guess if anyone asks then it was just a thing where we quickly realized we were going too fast and decided to break it off. Like a quick fling but we're still friends."
"I guess that'll work for now," Kelsey responds. "Okay, so Will and Sydney aren't a thing anymore. Then who is Will's new girlfriend going to be?"
"I dunno," you admit. "I was mulling over a few names but I'm not really sure about any of 'em. I was kinda thinking of letting you pick."
"You mean from the names you were considering?"
"Sure, maybe," you say as you give her the list of candidates.
"So one of them?" she asks.
"Whoever," you reply. "Think about it. If there's someone else you like better then go with them."
"Do you want me to send you my final choice so you can sign off on them?"
You think about it for a moment. "Nah, don't worry about it," you tell her. "I trust you.
* * * * *
After fixing up a quick and easy dinner for Kirkham and his mother—one you decline to eat—you then head to Acheson, out to the community center and the basement of the old elementary school that's served as your private safehouse. You text your doppelganger to meet you out there and wait impatiently for him to arrive.
"Took you long enough," you grumble when he finally does and meets you at the door. You practically shove him down the stairs much to his surprise. "Force of habit," you say unapologetically. "Anyway, get your ass outta those rags."
"We're switching?" he asks.
"Yeah, you get to be Kirkham. Fun for you, right?"
You then lean back and remove Kirkham's mask from your face. Once you've come to you then do the same for your doppelganger. For a brief time the naked, and very lovely, form of Amanda Ferguson is exposed but it is quickly replaced by the much less appealing one of David Kirkham. His eyes flash open and he lifts himself off the table, directly in front of you and in your face.
"Fuck are you so scared for?" he asks as you take a step back. "I'm not gonna do shit to you."
"You're... you're not," you stutter.
"Not unless you want me to," he grins as he pounds a fist on the table. "Fuck, it feels so weird. Even though I know you're my boss there's a part of me that still kinda wants to kick your ass."
"N-no, you're not going to do anything like that," you tell him.
"Yeah?"
"Y-yeah, yes," you answer. Right, he's just a doppelganger. He can't do anything to you unless you tell him to. He can't hurt you. There's no reason to be afraid of him. "You're not going to do anything to me," you say more assertively. "In fact, you're not going to stay away from me at school."
"That so?"
"If Chen or anyone asks, you... got bored," you tell him. "The Sydney shit was like a big finale. You can't really top it so there's no point now. That'll be your mindset."
"Glad you're letting me keep my dignity, boss," Kirkham smirks.
"Well if you want your dignity you should start by putting your clothes on," you tell him.
Kirkham, or the doppelganger that looks like him anyway, guffaws but does as you say. Once he's dressed you tell him to head home and remind him to stay away from you unless you contact him. From there, you put the mask of yourself onto your face in order to get the memories of the time that you've missed. To your surprise, there's not really much of anything there to interest you.
Just day after day of the same stuff. A lot of getting the cold shoulder from your friends. Getting beat up by Chen and Kirkham. Having to tell Sydney, that is the doppelganger Sydney, that "your boss" told you to break up with her. At that, you're surprised that you feel nothing from the memory. No guilt or regret or anything, just a numbness like someone going through the motions.
Like someone merely half-heartedly playing the role of Will Prescott.
* * * * *
In fact, you've been under masks for the last little while so you can't help but feel like you're merely playing the role of Will Prescott yourself. You actually feel a bit weird when you come home, like the feeling you'd get when you'd stay with a relative for a few days and suddenly your home doesn't feel like your home at first.
Mrs. Prescott welcomes you back as you come in and Robert Prescott tries to annoy you but you ignore him and head off to Will Prescott's room. No, once more this is your room and probably by the time you wake up it'll all feel normal again. But what's not normal is the fact that Will Prescott had sent a text to Kelsey Blankenship informing her that he'd moved back to being himself.
And it's even less normal that instead of ignoring Will or telling him to fuck off, your phone buzzes with a response back from her.
Oh thats good! I was just thinking of names!
You text her back to ask if she's made a choice already.
Kinda but I don't know. There's a few I'm thinking of.
You ask her what she means by that.
Exactly what I said? she responds.
I've got a few names in mind. Some I might be able to get tonite & some I can't.
But I'm having trouble choosing so help me pick.
What names?
Noooo! I want to surprise u!
Then how am I going to pick?
Red, blue, green, yellow, purple
That confuses you and you tell her as such.
Each color is a name I'm thinking of. Pick one.
How am I supposed to know what each one means?
You don't so don't think about it. Just trust me & pick a color.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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