Vice Versa

Zacky opened his eyes, his vision blurry. But he could make a black blob. For the life of him, he still couldn’t make out what exactly it was. He felt a soft thing pressing on his cheek repeatedly. He murmured out a string of incoherent words.

“Wake up. Wake up. Wake up for the love of God!” he could hear Jimmy’s voice. It went in the same rhythm as the soft thing pressing on his cheek. It couldn’t be...? It had to be an angel calling out to him. He grinned idiotically.

“Jimmy?”

“I’m here. Just… stop pretending to be dead!” At his voice, Zacky shot up.

“I’m not dead! What the fuck is going on! Am I actually dead? Because Jimmy is here…” he babbled, utterly confused. Brian shoved gently on his shoulder to push him back on the couch.

"Calm down.” He said, hushing the scared man.

“What is going on?”

“Jimmy is back! Here I am!” Tholomew jumped on Zacky’s stomach, making him cringe at the cat’s weight. Zacky widened his eyes.

“Are you really…?”

“Yup! In the flesh! Or in the fur in lack of a better word.”

“But you’re dead!”

“I’m not dead! How many-“ Jimmy was interrupted by a bone crushing hug from Zacky. Bone crushing was the perfect word. Jimmy’s feline body was tiny in Zacky’s thick tattooed arms.

“Why the fuck did you have to leave us? Fuck you for leaving us. It was like a new level of fuckin’ hell without you.” The green eyed man murmured in Jimmy’s fur. He squeaked in the grip, struggling.

“I need oxygen! Oxygen!” Tholomew panted. Zacky finally let go. The cat took in mouthfuls of air before licking his fur.

“You do it to me all the time!” Zacky smiled.

“Not really. All I did was to invade your personal space.”

“He always invades mine.” Brian grunted.

“Sorry!” Jimmy said in a singsong voice. He curled up to Zacky, leaving the room in a small bout of silence.

“You still owe me for my guitar.” Zacky broke the silence.

“I’m a cat. I can’t buy you a new one.”

“You still owe me.”

“It’s just a string.”

“You ruined the paint with your claws and the bridge is fucked.”

“Sorry!”

“You didn’t sound sincere.”

“But you didn’t when you put a fake spider on my snare and I broke it because of you!” Jimmy argued. Zacky simply laughed at the memory.

“So you now know all about this, so what do we do about the tour?” Alice finally piped up for the first time. The other men looked at each other. They weren’t sure on what to do anymore.

“How do you swap back?” Zacky shrugged.

“I don’t know? If I knew, we would have swapped back.”

“What did the witch say?”

“She said we had to figure it out ourselves. Something about looking in ourselves and around us.”

“You know that movie with Lindsay Lohan?” Jimmy chimed in. Everyone nodded in acknowledgement. “Freaky Friday?”

“Yeah… maybe… are you saying that we should use our point of views or something?” Brian said.

“Maybe.”

“I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with me.” He sat back, folding his arms. Everyone else snickered.

“You would say that when your ego is as big as Jupiter.” Alice murmured. Brian turned his body to Alice, raising his eyebrow.

“Do you think I have a reason to not to be?”

“It makes you bigheaded.”

“You know what? You always think you’re right. You have this ‘holier than thou’ attitude. News fucking flash, you’re not always right!”

“Well, I have a brain!”

“Are you saying I don’t have one?” Brian’s neck began to turn red in contrast to the pale skin he was borrowing.

“Must just as well be!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, guys. Calm down!” Jimmy climbed on the top of the couch’s back, towering over the sitting people. “This isn’t helping, the way you are acting!”

“I don’t see what was wrong with me.” Alice and Brian said at the same time. Jimmy sighed.

“We have a long way reckoning.” He muttered, looking at the mahogany wooden floor.

“What?” Alice snapped.

“You were just fine, Alice, and now it’s a big step back!”

“What do you mean?”

"The solution to the body swap.”

“What exactly is it?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“For Christ’s sake! We all have been driving ourselves crazy with this stupid guessing game. All we want is to get back in our bodies.”

“I know… and I’m here to help.”

“Some help you are!” Alice flung her arms around, sighing heavily. She flopped to the couch dramatically.

“Now who’s dramatic?” Brian snarled from the other side of the couch. Jimmy rolled his eyes. He didn’t think this would blow up like this. He had a piece of mind to go to Artemis and scold her for meddling with his best friends. But then again, he wouldn’t have been here if it hadn’t happened. Zacky was sitting on the floor, flicking his eyes to each speaking person, confused and entertained.

"You are dramatic without a real reason. I have a reason to be dramatic.” Alice hissed, exaggeratedly gesturing between them. The sight was comical, with Alice’s expressions in Brian’s face.

“I am bleeding from my vagina. I have a reason to be a dramatic.” Brian shot back.

“I deal with a bleeding vagina every month. I go to work with a bloody vagina, I exercise with a bloody vagina, and I even sometimes go to the beach with a bloody vagina. Woman up, dude!” Every male in the room, including Brian, winced at the last sentence.

“Too much information.” Zacky murmured. Suddenly, the room erupted in a mess of insults, arguments and drama.

“I have an idea!” Tholomew yelled over the cacophony. Everyone quietened down significantly. “Right. You all shut up. You all fucking shut up, you hear me?” Everybody nodded.

“This isn’t gonna work out if you just... fuck around, arguing. You got half an hour of me talking tonight so you guys could work this shit out before the tour.” He finished.

“How did you know about the tour?” Zacky dropped in.

“I have ears and you guys mentioned it earlier.”

“Oh, right.” Zacky frowned in space. The others snickered. “Hey, where did you go? What was it like dying?” he looked up to the black cat.

“I don’t think I have been anywhere. I just reincarnated. I woke up dead and BAM, I’m a baby cat. I don’t remember much. Artemis took me in and she helped me regain my old memories. Took me a while to remember my old life.”

“What was it like?”

“Like passing out while drunk and walking up the next morning in a random place and you can’t even fucking remember shit.” Zacky gave a knowing ‘ahh’, understanding what Jimmy meant. They all got side-tracked and chatted about Jimmy’s experiences for the rest of the hour until they faded into a deep sleep.