Vice Versa

After thinking hard and looking around Brian’s house for an hour, Alice made up an excuse that she was sick and needed to go out to clear up her... his head. She wasn’t even sure how to refer to herself. She walked to the closet and pulled the doors open. She gaped at the amount of hats that Brian probably owned. Stacks of them lay in haphazard orders. Most of them were fedora hats. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

Ignoring the hats and bypassing Michelle’s side of the closet, she opened the drawers to pull out a white V-neck shirt, a pair of black boxers and torn leather trousers. She threw it on and she didn’t bother checking for makeup or hair. For an extra measure, she put on a black leather fedora. She tied up a lovely pair of dark red Doc Martens and she was all dressed and set to go.

Walking down the beach to the infamous long pier, she had time to think. Watching young kids playing around and young tanned surfers, she wondered if any one of them had gone through something a bit like the messed up situation she was in.

“Hey, Syn!” Alice’s ears pricked up, catching a young girl’s voice. She wasn’t even sure if it was directed to her, or him, that is.

“Syn? Oh my God. Can I have an autograph and a photo?” a brunette girl in a pink bikini jogged up to her. Alice was lost for words. She had no clue on what to do. Who was this Syn she was speaking of? How famous was Brian exactly?

“Syn?” she repeated.

“Uh...”

“Have you lost your mind?” the girl looked at her indignantly. Alice was embarrassed. The girl just turned and stalked away on the sand. Shrugging, Alice continued to the pier. There, she found a girl with dirty blonde hair waiting against one of the wooden posts that held up the stretched pier.

“Hey?” Alice quietly directed at the waiting girl. She turned around. Alice froze. That girl was her. Oh my God, that was me! Alice thought. She couldn’t believe how she looked. She basically looked normal, but so small! Compared to the body she inhabited now, she was tiny.

Brian looked at himself. He stared. He always had wondered how he looked like towards other people, but here he was, his body, standing before him. His muscly body towered over him, making him uncomfortable. Was that how he seemed to others? He questioned himself. He noticed that Alice had put on one of his fedoras and void of makeup. He didn’t like going out without any eyeliner much.

“Let me guess, you never bothered doing your hair or make up? Or shall I say, MY hair and makeup?” Brian said.

“How would I know that you’re THAT vain? Possibly the amount of hats you had is a sure sign. By the way, you’re wearing my clothes all wrong. I never wear that top; I hate how my shoulders look in that. The pants are okay, but I prefer heels with that.” Alice had never bothered to look at what Brian decided to dress her body with. Now she had noticed she wasn’t happy on how she looked. She may be not that vain, but she liked to look good and confident.

“I don’t know what you normally wear, okay? And I always take my time to look good.” Brian gestured at himself pompously.

“Wait, someone called me Sin or something?”

“Oh, that’s my stage name. Synyster Gates. With a y, not an i.”

“I see.”

“So, what happened to us?” Alice asked after a short silence. Brian looked back at Alice after looking out to sea. He gave a shrug.

“We swapped bodies?”

“I know, but how?”

“No clue.” Brian let out a sigh.

“How do we explain to others? Michelle didn’t know…”

“Your friend knows.”

“Envy? Thank God. How did you convince her? She’s pretty cynical when it comes down to it.”

“I don’t know. I freaked out on her.”

“Wow.” Alice was still not used to the sight of herself, talking and standing there. Like an evil spirit talking over her body and talking and moving animatedly, like an awful puppet show. She wanted her body back. She didn’t want this foreign unfamiliar body that she was still getting the hang of. She hated the fact that someone else is invading hers, using her body for whatever reasons the intruder wanted.

It seemed that there wasn’t much that she could do for now. Maybe figure out what caused this mishap. She couldn’t refresh her memory on any events that may lead up to this.

“Do you remember anything that happened that might… make us swap bodies?” Alice questioned, a hopeful expression masking the horror and confusion of finding her body with a random man inside it.

“I don’t know. I haven’t been to some freaky voodoo place or…” Brian sighed, his own expressions freakishly shining through with Alice’s face.

“Me either.”

“Stop looking so girlish.”

“So? I’m a girl – not physically, but you should know.”

“But you’re living in my body. Don’t cock your hip like that.”

“Want me to throw on a pink skirt for extra measure?”

“Don’t you…” Brian tried to puff up his chest and leant into his face, warning Alice. But it only made her laugh.

“You… Oh my God.” Alice couldn’t believe that her body could be so futile on looking so tough. Alice is indeed tough, blunt and brash. But not in the fashion on how Brian usually did it.

Brian remembered that he was in a body that was unfavourable to him. He couldn’t look threatening in this body, even if he needed to. His heart sank. He wanted his body back badly.

“Okay, okay, let’s stop fighting and teach each other how to be each other. Because no one else except Envy knew of this… fuck up.” Alice said, finally grasping some sense for the first time since that morning. Brian had a pause.

“Fair enough.”