Vice Versa

Brian was curled up in the corner of the couch; a jaded and irritated expression lay on his face. He was clutching a pillow to his stomach, trying to compensate for the cramps. Alice sat next to him, her fingers tapping nervously on her knee. Opposite them, Zacky sat on an armchair, his fingers merged together below his chin. He was waiting for them to actually finish what they started earlier.

After a bothersome day of Brian whingeing and being dramatic and Alice fruitlessly trying to learn some chords, Zacky called to invite himself to Brian’s house so they would have a talk. Michelle left to see her sister so the three of them were alone in the house.

“So… what were you about to say? What was going on?” Zacky finally began after a long nervous silence. Alice gave a sigh, breathing out air. Brian simply scowled in space, stroking Pinkly who was curled up next to him on the couch.

“I don’t know if you would believe us.” Alice finally said.

“You can say anything to me. You can even say that a fucking alien came and probed your ass.”

“Might just as well have. Up my vagina.” Brian muttered lowly.

“What was that?” Zacky blinked, not even sure of what he said.

“Nothing.”

“Come on guys. Try anything.”

“We switched bodies.” Alice blurted out. Zacky was silent, blinking.

“You... switched bodies?”

“Yeah. With each other.”

“Okay, good one. Now, tell me the truth.” He chuckled, raising his sculpted eyebrow.

“We’re serious.” Brian piped up. “A witch swapped us. A lot of stuff is fucking up because of this.”

“You know, everything that was happening explains it clearly.” Alice chimed in. “Me appearing randomly, I mean, the real me, the so called memory wipe… I can’t even play guitar for shit.”

Zacky sat there, silent. Alice and Brian just simply stared at him, expectant. They wanted to get it across. He got up, raising a finger, as if he was telling them to give him a minute. He turned and walked outside. Alice and Brian were still in their seats. They weren’t sure on what to do. Until Alice decided that they should check on the friend who was at the porch.

“You go and check.” Alice said.

“Why me?” Brian rolled his eyes. He was still in his bad mood.

“You’re his best friend, obviously.”

“Fine.” Brian sighed and stood up, following where Zacky had gone. He found him on his porch steps, smoking a cigarette.

“Hey, Z.” he said, making the other man turn his head.

“Oh, hey.”

“Brian here, just to remind you.”

“You’re Brian huh?”

“I can prove it. I can play all of the songs.”

“It kind of makes sense, after all of the weird shit that had been going on. Why didn’t you go to the witch and switch back?”

“We tried. She said that we had to figure it out ourselves.” Brian took a seat next to Zacky. There was never a time he had wanted a cigarette so badly. Remembering Alice’s deep disdain at his smoking, he resisted.

“That’s shit… Is Alice really your cousin?” Zacky said.

“Nah. I never met her before all of this. She didn’t come from Italy either. Although she’s from Long Beach.”

“Right. No wonder Alice is so bad at lying.” Zacky stomped on the finished cigarette and stood up, pulling up Brian with him.

“You saw through her lie?” he said, raising his eyebrow.

“Yes and no. It is kind of credible but pretty bad.”

“Right. Will the others see though it?”

“Hey, it will be okay. They’re fooled for now. Come on, let’s get back in.’” Zacky finished. Brian nodded, looking at the wooden painted steps.

“Let’s meet Alice for real?” he indicated at the door.

“It’s still weird to see you talking in Alice’s body…” Zacky shook his head. He followed Brian to the living room, where Alice was still on the couch. She looked up to see Brian and Zacky entering the room. Zacky had a pensive face, gazing at her.

“Wow, meeting a person who looks exactly like my best friend.” He said, scratching his neck. “Well, hey.”

“Hey.” Alice muttered. Tholomew scuttled across the floor up to Zacky after sliding a bit on the wooden floor. The cat sure liked zipping from one spot to another. He padded his paws against the man’s leg, meowing. He picked the black cat up. He looked at him eye to eye.

“You’re going to pay for breaking my guitar.” Zacky said, his voice low. Despite what he said to the cat, he tucked him in the crook of his elbow and stroked him.

“Is he yours?” Zacky asked Alice. Alice shook her head.

“He is the witch’s.”

“He acts like he knows me.”

“He does.”

“Huh.”

“Seriously.” Brian dropped in. “Just… can you stay here all night?”

“Sure.”

"And you have to stay up until four am.”

“Okay…” Zacky was perplexed. Until four in the morning? He decided to go along with the other two. He stared at Tholomew, playing with his black paws.

Three Red Bulls each later, they’re still wide awake. Brian was in a better mood, Alice was a bit hyper. So was Zacky. Tholomew managed to steal a couple of licks of the energy drinks and now he was clambering on everything. He managed to break some ornaments which now lay scattered on the floor. Everybody was too distracted to clean up the mess. It was about five minutes until four in the morning. All they did was lounge around, chat and watch old TV show reruns. Zacky was antsy, especially from the energy drinks.

“How long is it until four?” he said, resting his head on Brian’s shoulder.

“Soon.”

“How soon?”

“Soon.”

“How soon?”

“I don’t know!” he snapped. Zacky simply sat there, staring at Brian. A grin adorned his face.

“You drank too much of that stuff.” Brian rolled his eyes.

“But I would be asleep by then.”

“How the fuck do I get down?!” A new voice abruptly said. Zacky scanned the room wildly; trying to find who the new voice belonged to.

“Up here, guys?” the voice said once again. Zacky looked up at the top of the bookcase. His eyes zeroed in on the scared black cat staring apprehensively at the bookcase’s edge. His face fell open in shock.

“Who the fuck are you!?” Zacky yelled, still staring at the talking cat.

“Who the fuck do you think I am?! I’m starting to get tired of getting those kinds of reactions from people.”

“Jimmy…” was the last thing Zacky said before he fainted, hitting the hard cold floor with a thump.