I Could Write It Better Than You Ever Felt It

"Well NOW what?!" Alex spat out angrily.

"I don't know, I don't know!"

We were both standing up now. Alex was still holding my ID and waving it around as he spoke.

"So...what? Now you've fucked with the whole universe?!"

"I don't know!!" I repeated.

"The address on this ID is my next door neighbors!"

We were both yelling, but I don't think our anger was directed at either one of us specifically. Just the bizarre situation we were in.

Seemingly clueless that we were having a moment, Pete wandered in and joined us.

"Alice, I really need to talk to you!"

"NOT. NOW." Alex shouted. Pete was taken aback.

"Dude, chill!"

"UrrrrrrAHHHGGGGGG!" Alex groaned out an incomprehensible noise. Pete ignored it and looked at me again.

"I don't want you going out with Jack tonight." He said sternly.
I couldn't help but to let out an almost identical sigh that Alex just had.

"Pete, not now!" I told him. Ignoring Pete all-together, Alex jumped back into the conversation.

"Don't you have a phone? Someone you can call?"

I remebered Becki.

"Yes!" I said excitedly. This brought a quick look of relief to Alex's face.

"Good, go get it. We'll call them. We'll call everyone in your phone." I ran past a dumbfounded Pete and left to go get my phone.

"Guys, what the hell?!" He exclaimed, as I quickly returned with my cell phone. We continued to ignore him. We both sat down on the couch as I speed dialed Becki's number.

"Pete, go away." I told him, as we listened to the phone ring on speakerphone.

"Not till you let me talk to you!"
I rolled my eyes.

"Pete, I already know. You don't want me to date Jack. Ok? Don't worry about it. Now go away!"

Alex smirked as Pete gave me a 'what the fuck' face.

"This isn't over." He told me, before finally disappearing. The phone rang once more before we heard Becki's voice.

"Hello?"

"Becki!" I exclaimed. It was genuine excitement. I had only been on the bus for a day now, but it felt like years since I had heard a familiar voice.

"Alice! Finally!! How's tour?!"

My heart sank. The excitement vanished I couldn't bring myself to respond right away.

"Alice?" She repeated after my slight pause.
Alex nuddged me. I looked at his face and I could tell he was just as disheartened as I had been to hear Becki's question.

"You know I'm on tour?" I asked, trying not to sound suspicious.

"Yeah! How are the guys? How's Jaaaacckkk?"
She dragged out the word making my cheeks go pink.

"Um...good..."

"Are you ok?"

"Uh..."
I froze. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, Alex grabbed the phone from me.

"Hey, uh, Becki? It's Alex..." He tried cautiously.

"Oh, hi Alex! What's up?"
She didn't seem phased or shocked at all and this seemed to put Alex a little more at ease. He leaned back more comfortably as he carried on the conversation.

"Not much! You're still in Maryland, I assume?"
I raised my eyebrows at him while he ignored me. He was playing this off quite good.

"You bet. I actually was waiting for Alice to call me back to tell her I'm moving back to Towson!"

"Woah, awesome! Well, Alice isn't feeling so hot right now, can she call you back later on? Maybe tomorrow?"

Becki agreed and they each said their goodbyes.

"What was that?" I asked incredulously. Alex just grinned.

"I can act too, ya know." He handed me back my phone.
"So I'm assuming 'Becki' lives near you in PA in the real world, right?"

I nodded sadly. He sighed deeply.

"Alright, lets call your mom."

I nodded and began to dial nervously. It rang twice.

"Hello?"

"Hey...mom?"

I held my hand over the speaker and whispered to Alex;
"This doesn't sound like my mom."

"Hi honey! How's the tour? Is Pete behaving?"

I swear I almost fainted again.

"I can't talk to her! You take it!" I whispered again.

"Why not!?" He whispered back.

"This is Pete's mom!" Alex's eyes went wide and he grabbed the phone from me.

"UHM, WRONG NUMBER!" He screeched in a high pitch voice, before pressing the 'end call' button as fast as he could.

"Nice 'acting'." I joked. He ignored it.

"Ok, you're sure this is your phone?"

"Positive."

"Alright, call someone else."

==============================

About 20 minutes and 16 phone calls later, we were even more confused than when we had started.

"Alright, so you've offically fucked with the entire universe." Alex calmly repeated himself from earlier. I, on the other hand, was anything but calm.

That was it. I had to be dreaming this whole thing up. This was just too insane. There were people programed into my address book that I didn't even know, including all the All Time Low and Fall Out Boy guys. The people that I did know in real life now only knew me as Alice Wentz. Each one asked me how touring was. I hadn't gotten a hold of my family. Each family member that I had called had actually been related to Pete. I was beginging to panic.

"Alex...what's going on? I know you probably don't believe that this is all happening just because I wrote some dumb story...but I can't explain anything anymore. You have to help me...I know you want to just send me home and have everything go back to normal, and I understand that...But I don't even know where home is! According to all the calls we just made, I am Alice Wentz now...How long is this going to last? Does my family know I'm gone? Are they alive? Am I alive?? Maybe I'm dead! Maybe-"

"Hey...You almost ready Alice?" Jack asked timidly. He had just appeared in the small door-frame. He leaned against it and shoved his hands in his pockets, staring at me and Alex with a small smile on his face. I frowned. I had completely forgotten about Jack and his plans for tonight.

"Give us 5 minutes!" Alex told him. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Geeze! You've already had an hour! What have you guys been doing in here anyways, making a porno?" Jack laughed to himself and walked off. Alex put a comforting hand on my shoulder. It was odd. He seemed to be legitimately concerned for me at that moment.

"Alright. Don't panic. I never thought I'd say this but...Go out with Jack tonight. He's fun, he'll make you forget everything for a while. I think that's what you need for today. Then tomorrow we're going to start to figure this out. I haven't pinned you as completely innocent yet, but...hell, I don't know how you could pull all this off on your own anyhow."

Alex's small speech was comforting.

"Thanks." I smiled. I was so thankful for his spur of kindness that I was debating on giving him a hug. That debate was short lived, however, when Jack poped his head into the room again.

"Girl, you are NOT going out with me wearing those pajamas!" He said, waving his finger at me with sass. I laughed and stood up.

"Alright, alright...give me 5 more minutes to get ready." I told him sheepishly.

"OH FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!" Jack threw his arms up in frustration.

"FUCK OFF!" We heard Pete yell from elsewhere on the bus, obviously taking the classic expression as a personal insult. I chuckled to myself.

Alex was right; with these guys around it was hard to stay stressed out for very long.