Chapter #2A New Life at the Party by: rugal b.   "Dana, look, I'm fine. It's not gonna be an issue," you insist.
Dana eyes you for a moment and then gives a resigned sigh. "Fine, then I'm going to head home to get ready," she states. "I'll be back to pick you up when I'm done."
"How long are you going to be?" you ask.
She pauses and shrugs. "I'll text you."
She leaves and after a few minutes you head downstairs; nobody says anything about your absence. Things continue as they are for another hour or so before things begin to wrap up. Most of the girls head home either together or individually depending on their situation. Belinda, to your relief, also leaves and though Joanna wants her to stay her mother shows up and she insists that her parents would be upset if she missed church in the morning.
In the end, the remaining girls turn out to be both Sarahs (Pak and White, the latter of who is the sister of the boys' basketball coach) and Carrie; but that's more than enough. Your room is directly across the hall from Joanna's so once they're in there you can hear them chattering and giggling about whatever a quartet of freshman girls chatter and giggle about. Carrie especially is enough to match an entire classroom of girls all by herself, being so perky and chatty and blah blah blah. While you like seeing her (she's pretty and friendly after all), she's also more exhausting to deal with at times than Belinda.
You decide to take a shower and thankfully the running water is enough to drown out the noise for a bit. By the time you finish up and dry off, it's a little after eight and you get a text from Dana proclaiming that she's almost ready and will be there soon. You don't think too hard about what to wear and just throw on a simple pair of jeans, a light-colored t-shirt, and a dark hoodie. It's the middle of September and the air is beginning to turn crisp, plus you've never been one for dressing up anyway. After all, it's a high school party. Nobody there is going to be dressed to the nines. By the time you're finished, Dana texts you tell you that she's there.
You say your goodbyes to your parents as you pass and tell them that you're going to hang out with some friends. You typically don't get into or cause any trouble so your parents tend to give you leeway in regards to staying out on weekends, usually only giving you a reminder not to stay out "too late," which is more an idea than a set time. There's been times you've come home from the Warehouse around one in the morning and your parents have barely batted an eye.
"You look nice," you tell Dana as you slide into the passenger seat.
"Thanks," she answers but doesn't seem to take the hint to return the compliment as she backs out. It turns out to be a prelude of how things go with her.
* * * * *
"Hey, I'll meet up with you later," Dana says shortly after you arrive. "I'm gonna go scope things out."
Yeah, scope things and people out. You're not an idiot; you know exactly what she means by that. She's going to go look for Shawn or at least someone connected with him. So already it looks like your plan may be a disaster but you try to push it aside. It's not definitely a loss out of the gate and even if it was, you can still enjoy yourself here. Sure, you're not Mr. Popularity but it's not like you're firmly on the bottom of the totem pole either.
No, if anything you'd say you sit squarely in the middle. You're the kind of guy who can mingle with someone a little above them or a little below them. But you'd definitely prefer to lean more towards the former than the latter, probably part of the reason you try not to associate too heavily with Matt. So that's that you do; go around the party and mingle. You see Eddie Wasnowski and spend some time chatting with him. Later, you're talking with Doug Watts and his new girlfriend, April Schofield.
You catch a glimpse of Kyle Lakewood and Jenny Taylor, the virtual king and queen of Eastman. They're chatting it up with Catherine Muskov, a bombshell who used to be co-captain of the track team before she moved over to Westside. By all accounts, they're all pretty friendly but you actually feel a bit too intimidated to go over and say hello. You're also feeling a bit self-conscious over how you've fantasized about all the ways you'd like to fuck Catherine.
It goes on like this for a little while and in that time you never see Dana. That's making you feel a bit depressed when someone grasps your shoulder and almost makes you jump. You turn to see Beth. "Hi," she says with a smile.
"Oh, hi. What's up?"
She looks around for a second as if she's looking for something, then turns around and grabs your arm. "Hey, come with me for a sec," she says as she begins pulling you.
She leads you through the crowd and then outside to a car that she unlocks. She opens the back door and turning back towards you, shoves you in as she falls on top of you. She's a rangy girl but is surprisingly strong despite that. And now she's laying on top of you. "Uh," you start but she cuts you off.
"Shh! I've got... I wanna say something, David," she says.
"Shit, are you drunk?" you ask.
"Am I... noooo!" she exclaims. "I had, like, one beer and I maybe hung out a little with Joshua and Eileen. But I'm fine!"
Well, maybe she's not drunk but you definitely know what hanging out with Joshua and Eileen entails because you've also "hung out" with them before.
"Okay, so what are—" You stop as you feel her shift on top of you, arms move underneath you and cradle your head. You're beginning to feel hot.
"So, like, I invited you out here you know. But I saw you come out with... with Dana Pak," she says.
"Oh... oh yeah?" you respond.
"I don't know if you're trying to... well, but you know that she likes Shawn Gregory right?" And then you feel Beth's lips come down on yours for a second. "I'm not gonna lead you around by the... the dick like she is."
And then her lips are on yours again and her tongue is jammed into your mouth. Beth likes you, you hadn't really thought of it but she does. She's not as pretty as Dana but she's nice looking all the same and as she lays on top of you, kissing you and being very forward and aggressive you suddenly don't care about Dana. Yeah, you might be about to score with Beth and having a basketball player, even a bench rider, for a girlfriend would be pretty sweet.
You're feeling really turned on and hot... really hot. As in physically hot. You're sweating and feeling dizzy again and maybe on instinct you grasp Beth tightly which seems to surprise her. Then suddenly she begins to struggle as your vision blurs and goes white. Then you black out.
* * * * *
You come to and feel very weird. Your head is spinning and you place a hand to your forehead. "Knew I shouldn't have smoked with them before this. But I needed to relax myself so I could..."
You stop. That's not your thought, at least you don't think it is. You're alone in the backseat of the car and push yourself up. You wonder where Beth is. Maybe she went to get help? But something feels off. Your body doesn't feel right... and it's then that you notice your clothes. You're wearing jeans but your legs seem slimmer. You've got a t-shirt but it's thinner and looks to be a different color and the sleeves are shorter. And instead of the hoodie you're wearing a long and open cardigan.
You lean forward and are surprised when you catch a glimpse in the rearview mirror. You sit back and notice a phone on the floor which you grab. You open it—that's definitely not your lockscreen—and turn the camera on, then reverse it. You almost drop the phone in shock.
Staring back at you is the face of Beth Larter. Her droopy, sleepy eyes move when your eyes do, her mouth opens and closes when you open and close your mouth. You see her blonde hair, long and thick and wavy, and when you reach a hand you can grab it and watch her grab it as well. You close the phone and instinctively pat your crotch to find nothing there.
"Holy shit," you say to yourself in her voice. Just a few minutes ago you were making out with Beth but now... you are Beth? How?
Something flashes in your head and you're suddenly replaying the events of a few minutes ago but they're from Beth's perspective. You see yourself and you see, through Beth's eyes, her kissing you. But then you feel yourself being grasped and David... he's turning blue! Literally blue! And it's like he's... he's melting! Oh god! What the fuck is going on? You struggle! And you want to scream except David brings his face towards you and... it shrinks and deforms and you feel something enter your mouth. You gasp and choke and struggle and thrash and then everything goes out.
So you... melted, somehow? And then you entered Beth Larter's body? So you're inside of her and controlling her? What the fuck is even going on? You look around the backseat and find a purse with a pocketbook. Inside you see Beth's driver's license with her address on it. You can just go back to her place and her room and take time to figure out what the hell is happening.
But you feel like Beth can't just ghost everyone either so maybe you should head back in. If nothing else, you can look for Dana and try to tell her about what's happened.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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